I was invited to attend the inaugural www.xconomy.com event at The Broad Institute in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Broad’s lobby was converted to host a crowd of 200 entrepreneurs, researchers, and media types. All were focused in one way or another, on cutting edge technology. Since the Broad is situated right in the middle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology “campus”, there was no lack of brainpower within the vicinity.
In addition to the networking, the highlight of the evening was a key note address by John Abele, the founder of Boston Scientific. John has had an amazing business career, but he told a far more interesting story. He presented a slide show about the search for the USS Grunion (SS-216), a World War II submarine that carried his father (the commander) and 69 other men when it was sunk and lost off the Aleutian Islands (Alaska) on 30 July, 1942. John and others made it their personal quest to locate the family members of the sailors, and to locate the submarine. They have succeeded at both tasks. The story about how they accomplished this was riveting. The search for the sub used the latest technology and robotics. The story reminded me about a great book I read, Ship of Gold in a Deep Blue Sea.
Life Adventures 