Twin City native Brian Fisher is an entomologist. Make that ant-omologist. He's traveled to remote places around the globe to identify and study about 800 new species of the insect in the past 25 years.

Fisher, a graduate of University High School in Normal, does what could be termed "extreme biology." He's endured malaria. His body was once attacked by worms from the inside out on a trip to the tropics. They made ugly bumps on his skin that made him looked so bad that when he returned to the states he was asked to leave a public swimming pool.

"People freaked out," said Fisher, 43, who's recovering from another exotic malady that attacks cartilage.

Still, he wouldn't have missed the challenge.

As a kid, he said he had no idea science could be so exciting. "I had no idea there is this incredible thrill about discovery. Once you make a discovery, you just want to do it again and again," he said.

Fisher took a call from The Pantagraph as he was preparing to return Madagascar from San Francisco, where he serves on the faculty of San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkley. Fisher must climb a half mile up from the nearest parking lot to reach a cabin he calls home. Refugees of the great San Francisco earthquake built the small structure in a Redwood grove more than a century ago. The location remains remote to this day. Endangered spotted owls raise their young outside his door.

Fisher, who has appeared in a number of BBC, Discovery Channel and National Geographic films, feels a sense of urgency about the need to learn more. Climate change and other factors are conspiring to destroy species before scientists even have a chance to identify them and learn what roles they play in nature, he said.

"We've only uncovered 10 percent of the life on earth. Ninety percent is left uncovered," said Fisher. "We have to do it faster. Humans are causing extinctions across the planet. We are realizing that if we don't figure out who we share this planet with, we won't be able to continue as a society as we know it today."

Fisher recently published a book, "Save an Ant, Save a Planet; Building a Future with Nature." All proceeds will support a biodiversity center in Madagascar that opened a year ago after Fisher convinced officials of its need. The building was designed by a fellow U High graduate, architect Peter Ozolins. Ironically, the men learned about their common link to the Twin Cities and the school only after Ozolins arrived on the island located off the coast of Africa to make his architectural drawings.

It was at U High that Fisher realized he'd have to travel far to find adventure.

"Reading National Geographic, you get the idea all the exciting places are in the mountains and the tropical rainforests. We had neither," he said. "I figured I'd have to go somewhere else to find those two things."

He began globetrotting as soon as he graduated from U High in 1983. His dad, Robert Fisher of the Twin Cities, recalled how his son insisted on touring Europe on his bicycle. The teen-aged Fisher camped as he pedaled through the countryside from Norway through France. He took work on farms for meals and to make enough money to go farther down the road. He eventually wound up in Spain. He learned French, Spanish and woodworking on the way.

He learned something else important about himself - that he really liked going new places, meeting new people and learning new things.

"It introduced me to the excitement of foreign places," he said.

Returning home, Fisher decided to attend the University of Iowa after discovering that scientists there had written more papers on research done in the tropics than any other institution of higher learning. A budding botanist at the time, Fisher was only at the school six months before he volunteered to go to Panama on a research expedition.

But the plants he found all had names, and their life cycles were well-known.

"I was getting a bit disappointed."

But, he soon turned to the insect world or rather, the insects turned to him. They were everywhere.

"You can't go to the tropics without being confronted by this rain of insects," said Fisher.

Only 2 percent of the world's bugs have been identified and studied, he said.

"I decided this was somewhere I could make a difference."

Ants, in particular, soon captured his attention. They are crucial to ecosystems everywhere. They move more earth than earthworms and they disperse plant seeds. Perhaps most importantly, they're among nature's top recyclers, members of what scientists call "the brown cycle," he said.

"Ants rule the brown cycle," Fisher said.

Madagascar has special advantages for biologists studying how life evolved. The island, which features dry forests, wet forests, high mountains and lowlands, broke from the African mainland 120 million years ago. Plants and animals were essentially left to evolve there on their own.

"Ninety-nine percent of the ants there are found only in Madagascar." he said. "It's a very unique part of the puzzle."

And, he added, it's a puzzle that must be solved in a hurry.

"We are the first generation to realize that our ecosystems are really under threat. That's good," Fisher said. "But, the sad part is we are the last generation to be able to do something about it. Are we going to figure that out?"

Unfortunately, he thinks most people remain "bio-illiterate," unaware of critical changes in the environment in their own backyards. Kids today are seduced to think real discoveries in the future will take place somewhere in space while so much work remains to be done on earth, he said.

On the plus side, scientists are working to make information more available to each other and the public at large. For example, natural history collections have been kept previously in museums and universities, mostly in Europe and the United States far away from where field researchers need the data.

In response, he's launched www.antweb.org where his colleagues and students worldwide can upload and retrieve detailed digital images to identify creatures wherever they are. Antweb has received an average of 28,000 hits per day. In the future, the Internet can make it possible for anyone to enter some information about a plant or animal and learn everything known about it up to that very moment.

"Imagine a world where you can walk out and know every leaf, every insect," Fisher said.

But, Fisher noted, while President Bush spends billions in Iraq, America is spending "only a few million" to connect people to the world in which they live.

"We know there is a problem with climate change, but we are doing nothing about it," Fisher said. "We have a window to make change, and it is now. This is an entrepreneurial society, more entrepreneurial than any other country. How do we turn that energy toward that problem? The problems are huge, and they are going to take a national effort. I can only hope the United States can see itself a leader in that process rather than be the last one to change."

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How to help

All proceeds from Brian Fisher's book, "Save an Ant, Save a Planet; Building a Future with Nature," will go to the Madagascar Biodiversity Center. The 160-page book is large format, 13 by 11 inches.

According to the publisher, readers can see "brilliant photos of Dr. Brian Fisher, an adventurer and biologist featured on Animal Planet, the BBC and in Discover magazine, as he inventories insects as a useful tool to discover and preserve the biodiversity of all plants and animals on this unique island. …Contribution to this California Academy of Sciences project is tax deductible in the United States."

Hardcover.

Cost: $134.95

Visit: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/94432 or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520254228