Nightline Daily Email: 7/06

W A S H I N G T O N, July 06 -- I've never caught a fish. I have gone fishing any number of times, both in streams and rivers and in the ocean, and I've never caught anything. And that really doesn't bother me. I love boats, love the water, I just never saw the attraction of sitting there, holding a rod and reel, and hoping that a fish would come by and mistake some sort of gaudy plastic lure for its lunch. No, I much prefer my fish to come in those little plastic containers at the store.

But people who do love fishing are very passionate about it. And what could be a more perfect broadcast for this holiday week than one about fishing. But this is a report done by Robert Krulwich, so you know that it won't be exactly what you might expect. He found a man who, for lack of a better description, is a sort of artist-in-residence at M.I.T. He comes up with all sorts of ideas that no one ever thought of before, and then enlists the considerable brain power there to turn them into reality.

We'll look at a couple of those, but the first one involves Robert being strapped into a fishing chair, just like Robert Shaw in "Jaws," grabbing a big fishing reel, and fishing for paramecium. You know, those one-celled creatures that you study in high school biology. Our artist devised a hook that the paramecium, which doesn't really have a mouth, just sort of an opening, would strike and then built a contraption that will translate the movement of the paramecium into movement that you could feel with the fishing rod. You have to understand, a paramecium weighs about a billionth of a pound.

I've always believed that part of our job as journalists is to take people places they've never been, and to show them things they've never seen. I believe, that with this broadcast, we've finally succeeded. I guarantee you that you have never seen anything like this before. It just seemed like the right story for the end of a holiday week, and quite honestly, a nice break from the kinds of serious stories that fill the headlines each day.