Fossils of prehistoric organisms show the characteristics of ice age life and the earth's geologic past.

Industrial plants and factories discharge waste into streams that lead to pollution of the streams and rivers. Scientists are working with industries to process industrial wastes so as to reduce water pollution.

Comparisons between normal and cancerous cells show chemical differences between them. This will lead to the development of viruses and other organisms that will be able to kill cancer cells without harming normal cells.

Archaeologists dig through layers of historic sites to discover artifacts of ancient civilizations. Several minutes lack video.

Preservation, cleaning, and restoration of art objects are presented as scientific processes. Careful use of solvents and tools can restore paintings and sculptures to their original brilliance. Using ultraviolet light and x-rays original paintings can be discovered beneath layers of paint.

This program describes the atom as the smallest structure in the universe and how they combine to form molecules. Molecules combine together to create larger structures that can react and combine with each other.

The need to see cells in motion in high magnification led to the development of the television microscope.

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.

This program is the first public showing of a film (whose title is from a line in Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn") made by Donald H. Andrews and funded by Mrs. William Hale Harkness. Dr. Andrews hypothesizes that all matter is music since all matter in the universe vibrates, and tones and harmonies are made by vibrations. The motion of a plucked violin string and its adjacent string (sympathetic resonance) are shown in slow motion and on an oscilloscope. Dr. Andrews discusses one dimensional harmony, as described by Pythagoras. Two dimensional harmonies are indicated by the fractional overtones of a drum head membrane, which is shown in slow motion and heard electronically enhanced. Three dimensional harmonies result from the contraction and expansion of a sphere; however, differently shaped solids, such as statues, have fractional resonances that produce unique chords or harmonic patterns when vibrating. Four dimensional harmonies come from atom vibration, a wave whose harmonic pattern is displayed by a vibrating sphere. Thus, Dr. Andrews concludes that since an atom is not a particle that vibrates in space, but rather the vibration itself, all matter is in dynamic form or all matter is music. He continues by playing on a piano the chords of tones of atoms produced by different chemical compounds. He also shows and discusses the pattern of Bach's music on an oscilloscope and music composed by Rebekah West Harkness. In conclusion, Dr. Andrews discusses the dynamic form of the human body's symphony and its small chords in the larger universe.

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."