The Associated Press is reporting that the NSF is building a replacement for Alvin, the famed US Navy research submersible operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Alvin played a pretty large role in my childhood - somehow I learned about it, I don't remember how anymore. After we moved to Pennsylvania, my brother and I took some of the large dish pack and wardrobe boxes from the movers and turned them into submarines. One of them, of course, was the Alvin. My interest in Alvin lead to another childhood favorite, the TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

It wasn't until I got to MIT that I connected the relationship of Alvin, WHOI, and MIT, therby tying together a few more threads of my life. I hope that the new vessel (Simon? Theodore?!!!) will have same inspirational effect on other kids -- maybe even mine...