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Birdcage

Pilot Chris Lathan adjusts a data logger in Alvin’s wiring harness during a recent major overhaul of the submersible’s systems. The “birdcage,” a scaffold mockup of the equivalent structure in the real Alvin, let Lathan design and troubleshoot the systems that distribute power, data, audio, and video to the interior of Alvin’s personnel sphere before the system is deployed in the ocean. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)