Spiders: Fear and Fascination, the new exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), challenges one of the most common phobias in western society (photo by Sean McCann)

Professor Maydianne Andrade and Associate Professor Douglas Currie lend expertise on ROM exhibit challenging our phobia of Spiders.

“Their biology, their anatomy, their behaviour – everything is foreign to us,” says Andrade, a world-renowned expert on the

mating habits of cannibalistic spiders.

“It’s different and it’s novel and it’s alien. And yet, they live on this planet and are integral parts of our ecology and food web.”

(photo by Brian Boyle)