Lynn Poole discusses the history of and variety of calendars, including Edmund Osborne's scenic calendars, Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac", the evolution of calendar girls from 1899 to present, the perpetual calendar, Stonehenge as a calendar, and a deck of cards representing a calendar. He also explains how primitive man reckoned time, the Babylonian astrologers' influence, and the origins of sennight and fortnight. Words for the days of the week in French, Italian, and Anglo-Saxon reflect their origins in the Romans' naming of days for the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and the sun. Years can be considered as anomalistic, tropical, or sidereal. The tropical year is explained with a globe and photographer's lamp as the earth orbits around the sun from vernal equinox to vernal equinox every 365.2422 days, requiring a leap year day to catch up. Calendars based on the moon are soon out of sync with the seasons as they're based on the 29.5-day lunar month, which is why the dates of Passover and Easter fluctuate. Mr. Poole displays an American Indian lunar calendar drawn on buckskin for the period 1865-1892. Julius Caesar abandoned the lunar calendar and decreed that the year would run from vernal equinox to vernal equinox; however, by 1582 this Julian calendar was off by ten days, and Pope Gregory decreed the Gregorian calendar, still used today.

Johns Hopkins University chemistry professor John H. Andrews demonstrates that all matter vibrates in harmonic wave patterns. He begins by using an oscilloscope and slow motion camera to show a plucked harp string's fundamental vibration at 64 times per second and its harmonics at a faster vibration. He compares this with the two-dimensional vibration of a drum membrane, also viewed on the slow motion camera and oscilloscope. Dr. Andrews then progresses to the three-dimensional wavelength of a sphere and notes that different and more complex harmonic patterns are based on the shape of the object. Since no two statues are alike, their wave patterns are all unique, as evidenced when a gadget taps them repetitively and their sound is recorded on magnetic tape. Dr. Andrews slows the tape to hear specific sounds and compares this to slowing a LP record on a record player from high speed to the proper speed to make the words recognizable. He explains that the aggregate vibration of the whole statue is based on its external shape, like atomic and molecular vibration. He points out that the formula for entropy, the measurement of the complexity of harmonic pattern, is the same as the formula for information theory, the measurement of the amount of information in a communication. Thus, a statue has high information value because its complex external shape gives it a high shape entropy and it communicates more meaning. This concept has implications for the communication values of modern v. classical art.

Dr. Donald Andrews, chemical professor at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), introduces this program with a brief report from the recent National Science Foundation's conference on chemistry teachers held at JHU, which encouraged coordination of the chemistry curriculum between high schools and universities. He then shows a film developed by the Hopkins chemistry department, "Operation: Chemist" by Milner Productions, which follows a representative student through the JHU chemistry program and lists the options open to him. The university's introductory chemistry course stresses quantitative rather than qualitative problems. This is followed by experimental problems and specialty fields such as organic chemistry, as taught by Dr. Alex Nickon, shown using molecular models in a research seminar, or biochemistry, using lab animals to research the relation between food and exercise on the heart. The film highlights examples of the equipment available to students.

Seven Johns Hopkins scholars predict what the audience might expect in 1968 in various fields of science. Dr. Dayton Carritt, assistant director of the Chesapeake Bay Institute, considers the future of earth sciences: rockets will orbit the earth and send back weather information, nuclear power will be developed, and ocean circulation will be studied for possible food production. In the area of life sciences, biology professor William McElroy discusses nutritional requirements to relieve diseases, trapping solar energy, the physiology of space travel, insights on aging, and other possibilities in a "golden age of medicine." Professor of microbiology Thomas B. Turner predicts space medicine, electronic equipment for the handicapped, public protection against radioactivity, better surgical methods for transplants, and the reduction or elimination of heart disease, polio, and cancer. Professor Charles Singleton maintains that the humanities will continue to survive as long as we ask "What is a man?" and "What does it mean to be where we are?" In communications, chemistry professor Donald Hatch predicts the extension of television networks as well as 3-D television programs and programs on demand. Professor of physics Theodore Berlin lists future energy issues such as control of thermonuclear fusion reactions, problems with radioactive wastes, application of atomic energy (but not in homes or vehicles), transformation of devices to control energy, and development of solid fuels and solar energy. According to Francis Clauser, professor of aeronautics, in the realm of space travel, commercial airlines will fly at supersonic speeds; guided missiles and anti-missile devices will be the backbone of defense; the U.S. will enjoy peaceful space travel with the Russians; and a rocket will go to the moon. To reinforce this view, Wernher von Braun, in a taped segment, predicts that the U.S. will launch a man into outer space, he will orbit and return to earth. He says an unmanned rocket will also land on Mars. Milton S. Eisenhower, the president of Johns Hopkins University, sums up their findings by pointing out the importance of education in all these endeavors.

The program opens with film clips of the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima. Dr. Donald Andrews, chemistry professor at Johns Hopkins University, says that man has learned how to harness and control the atom's energy in such projects as atomic submarines and power plants, but we can not yet harness or control hydrogen, the newest source of nuclear power. To do that, machines need to supplement man's brain, offering "automatic control" or cybernetics. Examples of this include analog machines that regulate single functions, like James Watts' fly ball governor to control steam to the engine (demonstrated in animated film), thermostats that work on a feedback loop, servoengines that correct the course of a ship, and automated pilots on planes. Dr. Andrews then demonstrates thermodynamics, which studies the relations between heat and motion, and shows visible and audible evidence of a gas using dry ice. He defines entropy as the degree of randomness in a situation expressed by probabilities. Claude Shannon was the first person to see the parallel between entropy and the theory of information, which makes possible more complex automatic control devices. Self-regulating machines still need human monitoring, but digital information machines, or computers, can handle more complex situations, such as reacting to emergencies. A filmed narrative describes IBM's Model 705 equipment and statistics. Dr. Andrews says that computers will become the instruments of overall control. Cartoons show the statistics, promises, and fears of mechanization in business, industry, and government, concluding that by 1965, the United States, with a population of 190,000,000 will require a 50% increase in production. Dr. Andrews also predicts that in the future automatic control machines will make possible automatically steered cars, continuous television with an on-request program selector for shows in full color and 3-D, interplanetary transportation within 100 years, and modification of conditions on other planets by robots for colonization of space. The program concludes with a brief film of the launching of an artificial earth satellite placed in orbit by a three-stage rocket as America's contribution to the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year.