When women think about careers in science and technology, they may wrongly believe the career would be one of isolation and lack of human contact, envisioning a lone scientist working in a lab or on a computer.

FORBES: Why Women Shun Science Careers

A. wrongly accused of being a double agent and held for three years in total isolation (no reading material, no news, no human contact except with interrogators) in a closet-size concrete cell near Williamsburg, Virginia, made chess sets from threads and a calendar from lint (only to have them discovered and swept away).

NEWYORKER: Hellhole

Astronauts have to be screened for their ability to tolerate long stretches in tightly confined isolation, and they come to depend on radio and video communications for social contact.

NEWYORKER: Hellhole