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.

Early detection is stressed throughout this series on cancer. In this program, Dr. Warfield M. Firor shows cross sectional slides of cancerous breasts, explains the nature of the disease in female breasts, and discusses research being done in this field. He guides the viewers through a film of breast surgery as it is being performed and discusses William S. Halsted's 1890 surgical procedure. Breast cancer survivors demonstrate their range of motion and muscle tone. For cancer recurrence, Dr. Firor recommends excision of the growth, hormone therapy, or x-ray therapy. He also addresses male cancer of the breast. The program concludes with a brief description of three cancer experiments being conducted by Johns Hopkins University researchers.

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.

Krilium is a synthetic polyectrolyte produced by the Monsanto Corporation that acts as a soil stabilizer. Krilium treated soil forms firm aggregates or crumbs that are resistant to the leaching and washing to keep soil structure intact.

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.

Dr. Loren C. Eiseley, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, lectures from material in his 1958 prize-winning book, "Darwin's Century." He explains why he teaches and how man's brain receives impressions and profits from experiences. He reads from Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" as well as from Alfred Russel Wallace's work that recognizes man's brain as the totally new factor in the history of life. Man has the ability to invent, progress, and make changes in his surroundings; and man's ethics, arts, and religions determine his cruelty or humaneness. Dr. Eiseley notes that man is relatively young in the total history of life, but with his mechanical inventions and implements of war and power of choice for good or evil, man and his science have made humanity's extinction possible. Showing a chart of anthropoidal skulls of man's ancestors, Dr. Eiseley says the potential destiny of man is unknown. Because of the Cold War, we need to take responsibility now for spiritual greatness. He warns that man should not abandon or forget how he has always tried to transcend himself spiritually, and he quotes C. S. Lewis on the rationality of man.

Rear Admiral Thomas F. Connolly outlines Project Transit, the first operational navigation satellite system for the use of submarines and surface vessels. He gives credit for this idea to Dr. William Guier and Dr. George Weiffenbach, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), who realized that after the launch of Russian Sputnik I they could track its position by observing the Sputnik's Doppler shift. Frank McClure, heard of research at APL, visualized that the opposite would then be true: a satellite in orbit could determine a point of reference on earth. Dr. Richard Kershner, former head of the Terrier surface to air missile program at APL, headed the designing and building of the Transit satellite. Dr. Kershner explains why the Doppler technique is highly accurate, and an animated segment simplifies this phenomenon. Using a chart and a mock up, Dr. Kershner describes the construction and sections of Transit I and how it functions, including its solar cells, radiation shield, and telemetering system. Film clips taken at APL show testing of weights on the satellite as well as the shake test, centrifuge test, and heat/cold tests. Additional film clips show the tracking stations, to monitor the satellite's received signals, in Maryland, New Mexico, and Texas, plus two mobile vans stationed in Washington and Newfoundland. Rear Admiral Connolly discusses the future of this project as it adds more satellites and notes that this television program is the first to reveal Project Transit, "the practical navigational system of the future." Host Lynn Poole concludes this twelfth anniversary program by pointing out that it is the oldest program on network television. He reminisces about the four stations on the network (Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York) when the first program premiered on March 9, 1948. Poole also shows clips from "Fear," the oldest program kinescoped (October 3, 1950), the 1952 three-part series on outer space featuring Heinz Haber and Wernher Von Braun, and APL's Dr. Ralph E. Gibson's orbital shots of "The World from 70 Miles Up" (December 17, 1948). Poole quotes Isaiah Bowman, Johns Hopkins' president in 1948: "Television is an exciting new medium by which we can extend the knowledge of a university beyond the confines of the classroom and the campus to those who are curious about the world in which they live."

This program celebrates the 150th anniversary of the tin can. To meet military demands for preserved foods during war, Nicholas Appert devised a method of preserving foods by heating them in sealed containers to destroy the bacteria. In 1812 Peter Durand invented the tin can and the first canning factory opened in Great Britain. A dramatization describes a typical 1815 dinner consisting predominantly of pickled, salted, smoked, and dried foods. Thomas Kensett patented Durand's tin cans in the U.S. in 1825. During the Civil War demands for canned foods increased, boosting mass production of the tin cans. Other products began appearing in cans, such as I. W. Lyons' tooth powder for home use; Gerhard Mennen's talcum powder for babies, in a lithographed can with a sprinkle top; and Gilbert Van Camp's pork and beans combination. A selection of 1880s mass produced, decorative tins display a variety of products, many non-perishable. Soldering the tops of cans by hand gave way to open-topped cans that could be seamed shut by machine. The only exception to this were condensed or evaporated milk cans, patented in 1856 by Gail Borden. A film shows a canning factory, producing 30,000 cans per hour, from cutting the tin plate to testing and shipping the final products. The aerosol can, first used in World War II for insecticide, is also discussed.

Host Lynn Poole sets the scene of the late 18th/early 19th century Rocky Mountain fur trappers who crossed the Missouri River (the "Yellow Waters") to trap beavers and sell pelts, blazing the Oregon Trail as they advanced. In 1837 Baltimore, Maryland painter Alfred Jacob Miller joined the American Fur Company caravan, with Scottish Captain William Drummond Stewart, to make a visual record of their trip to the fur traders' rendezvous in the Green River Valley of Wyoming. A map shows their route from Independence, Missouri to Oregon. Miller's sketches, later transformed into over 200 watercolors (now preserved in the Walters Art Gallery and displayed on this program) and oil paintings, chronicle such events as buffalo hunts, prairie fires, and river crossings, as well as such landmarks as Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluff, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock, and The Devil's Gate. Miller's paintings also show encounters with Sioux tribes and Black Feet Indians, various tribal members, and Indian women. The final painting shown portrays trapper Joe Walker with his new Indian wife heading into the wilderness after the rendezvous. Lynn Poole concludes the program by describing how missionaries such as Marcus and Narcissa Whitman took the Oregon Trail to Walla Walla, Washington, followed later by the many settlers moving West.

This is the final program of The Johns Hopkins University television series. In it, Dr. George Carter, geography professor at Hopkins, notes that Louis S.B. Leakey found evidence of the earliest primitive man and his tools in Kenya. He then displays revised maps of the world that reveal different land masses during glacial periods, thus allowing the Kenyan man to explore new lands and form colonies over a period of 100,000 years until the glaciers receded and the oceans returned. Dr. Carter discusses the transformation of Kenyan man from an isolated pygmy into modern man with regional or racial characteristics, such as the cave dwelling "Sinanthropus pekinesis" in northern China and the Swanscombe man in England. Glacial periods also created a land bridge near the Bering Strait, allowing animals and man to cross from Asia into North America. Tools found in the Americas plus the physical characteristics of early American Indians offer proof of waves of Asian migrations. Survivors of early man include the australoids, europids, and mongoloids. At the conclusion of the program, host Lynn Poole thanks members of the studio, university, and network for their hard work and dedication. John McClay, general manager of station WJZ-TV, expresses his gratitude to Johns Hopkins University and Lynn Poole especially. University president Milton S. Eisenhower thanks everyone responsible for the shows and announces reluctantly that "File 7" will not be on the air next season. He says that the "business of producing, creating, and presenting a weekly program has become increasingly burdensome," and because of the University's other commitments, it is unable to produce shows of the high quality expected of Johns Hopkins. Furthermore, Dr. Eisenhower hopes that this "will be only an interruption and not a permanent termination" of Hopkins educational television. Thirteen "File 7" reruns will be shown during the summer of 1960, but it will not be continued thereafter.