Lynn Poole displays a chart of the orchestra sections: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Dr. William Hart, timpanist with the Baltimore Symphonic Orchestra and professor at the Peabody conservatory of Music, defines the elements of music: rhythm, melody, and harmony and demonstrates each of them on the piano, noting that the percussion instruments are the dispensers of rhythm. He gives a brief history of percussive music while showing instruments such as the timbro, castanets, cymbals, tambourine, and Chinese temple blocks. With the assistance of fellow timpanist Dr. William G. DeLeon, Dr. Hart demonstrates and explains the snare drum, the most common percussive instrument; the xylophone and its use in modern compositions such as the "Sabre Dance"; the cymbals and their contrasting use in Wagner's "Die Walkure" and Debussy's "Festivals"; and the kettle drums, or timpani, which can be tuned and which provide the heartbeat of the orchestra.

Fourth generation glassblower John Lehman makes a glass trap for a vacuum system as specified by chemistry professor John Gryder. Mr. Lehman and Dr. Gryder explain the process of making the glass piece, including "pulling points," using both cross fires and torch to heat the glass as it evolves. A brief film explores the history of glass, from volcanic obsidian to the man-made glass of the Egyptians. In 300 B.C. the blowpipe was invented, opening the way to new uses of glass. At the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia, Captain John Smith built a glass factory. A film shows a reenactment of an early American glassblower making a bottle. Dr. Gryder displays historical tools still used in the art plus modern ones that have been added. Manufacturers of glass have changed the assumed properties of glass, making it pliant, strong, heat and cold resistant, etc. for new functions. Mr. Lehman completes the glass piece, inserts it in the vacuum system, and tests it for leaks.

Biologist George Schwartz explains how the microprojector microscope, which he developed, displays the microcosm in a drop of water on a television monitor. He shows slides of the shells of diatoms, the basic food source in fresh and salt water; amoeba, which move by protoplasmic flow; blepharisma, a one-celled organism; rotifers, multi-celled organisms; and euglena, used in anemia research because of their sensitivity to vitamin B-12. Mr. Schwartz discusses producers (such as diatoms), consumers (animals), and reducers (bacteria, fungi, mold) and shows a diagram of a food pyramid of the producers and consumers in Antarctic waters. A film of a microdissection apparatus introduces new ways to research microscopic life.

Members of the Johns Hopkins audiology team discuss the interrelationship of hearing, language, and speech, especially in children. Dr. Bordley explains the hearing process using a mock-up of the inner ear and brain. Dr. Pauls discusses children's normal speech development and shows children in this learning process. Dr. Hardy gives examples of how damage to the external or middle ear causes minor hearing problems, but damage to the inner ear causes hearing distortion. Since the hearing mechanism is an information bearing system, children who have problems with loudness, pitch, or both can have decoding issues. However, sight, taste, and smell also contribute to learning, so staff and parents can teach a repetitive, all-sensory form of learning, especially for children with aphasia, who have language problems unrelated to hearing loss. A film shows the observation and evaluation of a child in the clinic to determine whether he has hearing or language problems or a combination of the two. Dr. Hardy concludes that parents' acceptance and guidance is critical in training their hearing-impaired child.

Neurological surgeon Walker explains that the brain is composed of neurons, nerve cells that convey impulses to various parts of the body and store memory of impulses. He shows a diagram of the dendrites and axons of the neurons and explains a cross-section model of a neuron. Lynn Poole lists some of the history of the research on brain functions, including that of the early German phrenologist Franz Joseph Gall. In 1817 it was demonstrated that electrical stimulus applied to the brain produced movement on the opposite side of the brain, giving rise to the existence of motor areas of the brain. Using a brain cross-section diagram related to various parts of the body, Dr. Walker shows how the sensory cortex, or homunculus, is closely correlated with the motor cortex. He also discusses what happens when these areas are injured and how they affect vision, hearing, and speech. The association area of the brain is the temporal lobe. Personality and drive may be located in the frontal lobe as lobotomies in that area produce personality change and induce apathy. Additional research is needed to discover if patterns of pathways between nerve cells are responsible for psychological differences.

The program opens with performer Elizabeth Hughes singing the folk song "Lord Randall" with dulcimer accompaniment. Lynn Poole briefly discusses southern Appalachian mountain folk lore and how music records the heritage of the people. Virgil Sturgill describes the origins and characteristics of folk songs such as "Billy Grimes," sung by Ms. Hughes. The ballad "Barbara Allen" can be traced to the mid-1600s in Scotland, with several versions of the tragic fate of the rejected lover evolving over time and continents. Mike Seeger sings one version with a fiddle; Larry Marxer performs another variant with guitar; and Ms. Hughes sings still another with dulcimer. Mr. Sturgill shows the typical instruments played in the Appalachians: melodian or autoharp, dulcimer, banjo, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, whistle, and fiddle, and Seeger plays "Black Mt. Rag" on the latter. The performers sing answering back songs, such as "Billy Boy"; Bible stories, such as "Little Moses"; and songs about local events.

Lynn Poole summarizes the modern concept of foundations for philanthropy. Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower, president of Johns Hopkins University, reports that there are 7,000 private foundations in the U. S. with assets of over $7 billion. He discusses their varied interests noting that this program will focus on a representative foundation's private gifts to education. Henry T. Heald, president of the Ford Foundation, explains that the purpose of this foundation's twenty programs is to advance human welfare. Secretary of the Ford Foundation Joseph M. McDaniel points out that foundations can be discriminating, flexible, and can show by example. He describes the Ford Foundation's funding of both the Woodrow Wilson program for attracting able students into the teaching field and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. Mr. McDaniel explains that about 400 applications are funded from the 5,000 received annually. These are selected because they seem to provide the best solutions to issues that are within the foundation's purpose and interests. Clarence H. Faust, president of the Fund for the Advancement of Education of the Ford Foundation, describes some of the teacher shortage solutions supported by this fund. For example, this fund contributes to new school construction, and in 1955 it partnered with the Carnegie Foundation to create the National Merit Scholarship Corp. to provide scholarships to send more students to college. Mr. Faust also discusses the "Hagerstown Project" in Washington County, MD where a grant from the Ford Foundation has supplied funds for a five-year experiment using closed circuit television for classroom instruction.

Lynn Poole provides a brief history of the origins and transmission of influenza. Dr. Charlotte Silverman, chief of the Division of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, Maryland Department of Health, describes the production and activities of antibodies and the 1957 vaccination program, citing Dr. Maurice Hellerman at the Walter Reed Hospital as the person who identified the new type A strain of the Asian flu virus. She also explains the international character of the flu, which can cause epidemics and pandemics, such as the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918-19, during which 25 million died. A film shows the work of the World Influenza Center in London where flu strains are collected and studied. Another film clip illustrates how Asian influenza virus vaccines are made in hens' eggs. Dr. Silverman describes how viewers can protect themselves and lessen spreading the virus. Finally, Dr. Silverman describes symptoms of the flu and offers suggestions for treatment of it.

Lynn Poole contrasts the expressions in war paintings by Richard Eurich and Jose Orozco and notes that a picture is an artist's way of representing his experiences and reactions to an event. Dr. William A. McDonald, assistant director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, explains the artist's creative process. He compares naturalism vs. emotional reaction to a subject by comparing two paintings of cats. Artists may distort form, color, or size to emphasize qualities that are important. Both artists and sculptors use horizontal lines to express serenity and diagonal or curved lines for movement, as exemplified in the dance movements of a Kirchner painting and a Matisse sculpture. Dr. McDonald discusses the heavy black lines, borrowed from stained glass making, in Georges Rouault's "The Crucifixion," and the swirling lines in Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night," an example of expressionism. The German expressionists were influenced by the abstract art of Africa and used lines to evoke inner feelings. Displayed examples of this school include a Pechstein woodcut, a Kathe Kollwitz drawing, a Heckel self-portrait, and Miro's happier painting "Summer." Dr. McDonald explains the use of distortion in El Greco's "Laokoon" and Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," which he compares with Orozco's "Dive Bomber and Tank" shown in the opening of the program.