Amateur Scientist Featured on PBS Spider Documentary

Amateur scientist Martin Nicholas is a well known spider expert. He is especially well known now that the U.S. Public Broadcasting System (PBS) has aired a documentary program about his studies of spiders around the world. The program, "True Adventures of the Ultimate Spider-hunter," was telecast as part of the Nature series by PBS on 12 February 2006.

If you missed the program, you can find out more about Nicholas and the exotic spiders that he studies at this PBS site.

Nicholas is a water treatment engineer when he is not studying spiders. In his spare time, he has conducted spider research in Belize, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, North Africa, Peru, Turkey, the Windward Islands and Vietnam. He has served as a research associate and guide for the British Museum of Natural History.

Fellow amateur scientists who do field research will relate to this line from the PBS web site devoted to Nicholas: "Armed with his spider-cam -- 'a miracle of precision engineering and duct tape' -- Nicholas travels to French Guiana in search of the world's biggest spider, the goliath bird-eater, which can grow to 12 inches [30.5 cm] in diameter."

"True Adventures of the Ultimate Spider-hunter" may be telecast again in the future by PBS. Or you can order a VHS or DVD of the program here. Meanwhile, you can visit the program's web site to learn more about this famous amateur scientist and the arachnids he studies around the world.

Forrest M. Mims III