Geologists And Engineers Join To Discover The Lake From Below

Santa Clara mechanical engineering student John Zevenbergen pulled his hands out of his sweatshirt pockets and adjusted his red skull cap, patting the hat's emblem, worn off a little on the side. "It's my Steve Zissou patch - for good luck, so we get out there," Zevenbergen grinned. "Yep, we'll get out there." Zissou, a fictitious Jacques Cousteau played by Bill Murray in off-beat auteur Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," might be proud of the scene he surveyed around Zevenbergen at the Boatworks Marina in Tahoe City Thursday morning: A half-dozen students working on a future-primitive-looking underwater robot whose shiny squared yellow chassis looked more New York cab than sleek diving machine...