Smithsonian.com

The University of Cambridge Department of Engineering hosted a photography contest earlier this year, and the winners have just been announced. The photo above, Project Pebble, won first prize. Two engineering students, Ben Sheppard and Robbie Howshall, set out to design a low-cost, deep-sea photographic vessel (current vessels for taking pictures deep underwater are far from cheap) and came up with Pebble, which cost only £1800 (about $3000). The photo above was taken during pool trials. Pebble was deployed in the sea North of Scotland (59˚ 03.76 N 07˚ 13.17 W) on May 21. Sadly, when the researchers returned to the site the next day, Pebble was gone. They suspect that a fishing vessel picked it up accidentally.

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