Scientific research at American universities has led to many important discoveries and applications during the first half of the twentieth century. Research on botulism, kidney function, human heat tolerance, x-rays and other topics from the University of California at Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, Indiana University and other institutions are featured.

Solar power is used by plants for creation of starch and sugar which releases oxygen into the air. This process is known as photosynthesis. Research into solar energy will lead to harnessing the energy from the sun to become a reliable source of power.

Dr. Abel Wolman describes the purpose of a university as a place to search for truth without interference. When research is in its initial stages, the information generated does not appear to have any useful application. By using case studies, the show demonstrates that basic research can have profound implications. Dr. Wolman provides some examples of how seemingly insignificant research can lead to important discoveries: Josiah Willard Gibbs, professor of theoretical physics; Henry A. Rowland, builder of the engine for ruling diffraction gratings; and Ira Remsen, developer of saccharine. Next, Dr. Francis Schwenkter describes recent medical inventions, instruments, and investigations that revolutionized the world: the circulation of spinal fluid, the properties of folic acid, and the treatment of blue babies, cancer, and rickets.

A history of basic research is presented, beginning with Dr. Ira Remson, the first professor of organic chemistry at Johns Hopkins University and his research into the atomic nature of matter and isotopes. Some important findings occur by accident like the discovery of saccharine. Pure research can have far reaching applications to make the practical discoveries of tomorrow.

A detailed look at the production and direction of an installment of the Johns Hopkins science review is shown including the technical details of television transmission and broadcasting.

This program features Christmas music by the Johns Hopkins University Glee Club, directed by James Mitchell, and the University of Maryland Mixed Vocal Group, directed by Charles Haslup. The University of Maryland group sings "Winter Wonderland," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "White Christmas," "Come, All Ye Faithful," and "Holy Night." The Hopkins Glee Club sings the Ukrainian hymn "Glory to God," "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "Indulci Jubilo," "See That Babe in the Lowly Manger," and "The Bells." Johns Hopkins student composer Richard Kapp plays "Bells," "Wassail," and "Boy Meets Santa," original Christmas pieces for the piano. Hopkins president Milton S. Eisenhower presents his annual Christmas message, discussing the traditions of the celebration and observation of this holiday, the widely divergent moral convictions threatening the world today, and the qualities of good character.

Lynn Poole and models Dick Manson and Barbara Casey demonstrate how bones and muscles function with our actions. Dr. William Montagna, professor of biology at Brown University, looks at bones from an artistic point of view. He displays the lumbar vertebrae of both a whale and a human and notes their structure. He contrasts the humerus from the upper arm, the scapula from the shoulder, and the carpal bones of the wrist. Comparing the skulls of a man and a woman, Dr. Montagna explains the differences. The three types of joints he lists are the fused in the skull, the hinge-type in the elbow, and the ball and socket in the shoulder and hip. Investigating the interior of bones, Dr. Montagna shows the frontal sinuses of the head and compares the spongy bone material at each end of a bone to a bridge structure. For strength and resiliency, bones require both organic and inorganic substance, which Dr. Montagna demonstrates with bones lacking one or the other. A diagram shows how the endosteum and the periosteum balance bone growth. X-ray films compare the hands of a three-year-old, which has cartilage at the end of each bone, and a thirty-year-old, which has bone in place. Dr. Montagna concludes that bone is a living tissue, as evidenced by its mechanism to repair itself quickly.

Lynn Poole shows the proceedings of "A Chemical Basis of Heredity," a symposium of biochemists and geneticists. Dr. Kenneth Monty, a biochemist professor at Johns Hopkins University, discusses research on the effect of radiation on chromosomes and Russian A. I. Oparin's theory of the origin of life. A chart shows single-celled organisms, such as amoebae, and Dr. Monty comments on reproduction from a single cell. The 1953 Urey-Miller experiment attempted to recreate the conditions of the primordial atmosphere with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen resulting in the precursors of amino acids, the main components of living cells. Scientist Sidney Fox also discovered that amino acids will organize spontaneously into protein molecules. Animated segments show amino acids, proteins, and nucleotides and how accidents in the original cells resulted in mutation, heredity, and evolution. Nucleic acids are the carriers of heredity and responsible for transformation. Dr. Franco Rasetti, a Johns Hopkins professor of physics who worked with Enrico Fermi in Rome, discusses his 10,000-specimen collection of trilobites or fossilized remains of marine life. He shows specimens and photos of various trilobites as old as 500 million years and notes that there is a gap between one-celled organisms and these diversified forms of life from the Cambrian Period. He shows a map of Cambrian rock exposures in the U. S. and briefly explains how to find and remove fossils.

A dramatization of feudal lords, ladies, minstrels, fools, and acrobats in a banquet hall illustrates points about medieval life in this program. Dr. Sidney Painter, professor of history at The Johns Hopkins University, discusses chivalry, from the French "chevalier", or knight, referring to the ideals of the knightly class. He summarizes the events of the Middle Ages and notes that warfare and women were the guiding influences of that period. The knights, originally barbarous in desires and actions, listened to "chansons de geste", poems of war, but they became more civilized as troubadours changed their tunes. "The Story of Roland", for example, suggests that knights were to protect the church and punish criminals. Courtly poems laid the foundation for "preux", a term denoting prowess and all the virtues of chivalry. Women such as Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughter Marie further influenced men's behavior by supporting such troubadours as Chretien De Troyes, who wrote "Erec et Enide".

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.