The program opens with photos showing the versatility and expression of glass. Host Leo Geier explains that Johns Hopkins University employs full-time glassblower John Lehman because research scientists require intricate, complex glass equipment that no one has ever seen. Mr. Lehman demonstrates "pulling points" as he creates a ring seal for a trap. When Mr. Lehman first started blowing glass, there were only soft, soda, and lime glass varieties; now there are 75 different types and additional refinements are in process. A film covers the discovery of glass, from obsidian, natural glass used to carve weapons, vessels, and decorations, to the first manmade glass in 5000 BC and the Egyptians' glass jewelry and containers. Mr. Lehman demonstrates how to make a manometer from capillary tubing glass as well as the procedure in blowing a flask and a coiled glass tube. To demonstrate non-scientific aspects of the art, Mr. Lehman blows a swan, makes glass Christmas "snow," and completes a glass bird.

Lynn Poole displays the incandescent point source of light from 1909, the 1938 fluorescent line source of light, and the new electro-luminescence flat panel of light. Carl Jensen, a lighting engineer and marketing manager, and Dr. John McNall, the director of research at Westinghouse Electric Corp., discuss how this light is generated by exciting phosphors in alternating electric fields and demonstrate the concept using a tilting board with traps and marbles. Electro-luminescence was first discovered in 1936 by Georges Destriau, shown in a film clip. The guests also make the analogy of keys on a piano to the full electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma waves. They explain that lumens are units of light and watts are units of power, and they compare the brightness of electro-luminescence to incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. The new product can become brighter by increasing the voltage or frequency or both, but it has limits. Dr. McNall shows the electrical conductors and other layers making up this artificial source of light and notes that it can be made into many shapes or designs and installed in ceilings, walls, stairs, furniture, and even drapery. However, square panels are the most common shape, as shown in the top of a coffee table and on the walls of a model room. Scientific use of electro-luminescence includes astronautical instrumentation, and electro-enhancement will lead to less x-ray exposure by intensification of fluoroscopy screens. Mr. Jensen predicts that in the future this product could be used for a thin, flat, wall-mounted television screen with controls available remotely for the viewer's convenience.

This program takes place at Hughes Aircraft Company in California and features the Mobot Mark I, an electrohydraulic device that was developed as a lab technician for tasks too dangerous for humans. John Colp, of the Radiation Effects Lab at Sandia Corp., shows the mobot operating between the radiation room, where component parts are exposed to atomic radiation, and the hot cell, where the mobot analyzes the components' damage and tests them for malfunction. Design engineer Vaughn Thompson explains the design of the mobot's pincers, elbow rotation, and other movements and how the hydraulic system functions. Dr. John Clark, manager of the nuclear electronics lab at Hughes, displays a diagram of the operating system controlling the mobot and explains how the mobot's movements are controlled on the operator's console. A triaxial cable carries all signals via a multiplexing circuitry to the mobot. The mobot demonstrates its dexterity by putting a golf ball into a cup, and operator Stan Pearlman successfully guides the mobot through an exercise in finding a dumbbell hidden by Lynn Poole. Drawings of future mobots include models to fight fires and to explore underwater and lunar areas.

The Johns Hopkins University president Milton S. Eisenhower introduces this program about the Fund for Adult Education, an independent philanthropic organization sponsored by the Ford Foundation to extend liberal education to adults. He explains that as a society becomes more complex, its need for good leaders increases. Charles H. Percy, president of the Bell and Howell Co. and chairman of the board for the Fund, describes leadership in the United States and public responsibility of its citizens. He points out that particularly because we now have the power to destroy ourselves, the future of society depends on the effectiveness of key people in organizations' leadership roles. The president of the Fund, C. Scott Fletcher, says that leadership comes from a multiple, fluid society, offering a constant supply of fresh people with new ideas. A short film shows how uneducated leaders in a village are unable to meet the challenge of change and take a long-range view. Harry A. Bullis, director of the Fund, explains that leadership training is available to Armed Forces staff and at most private organizations, but top government employees only receive on the job training via trial and error, often at the public's expense. The Fund intends to prepare such individuals for public responsibilities. President of Vassar College and vice-chair of the Fund's board Sarah Gibson Blanding describes leadership in Thomas Jefferson's days and how it developed as society became more complex. While there are opportunities for many types of training, adult leadership training is lacking. She reiterates that continuing liberal adult education is necessary. Leaders must be educated to be dedicated, courageous, and imaginative. Mr. Percy concludes that the threat of Soviet Russia and its success with communism will exist for a long time, so we must educate our leaders as efficiently as they do theirs. He suggests non-commercial educational television as a possible education vehicle. In closing, Lynn Poole offers a free copy of the Fund's booklet "The Great Awakening" to the viewing audience.

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.

Lynn Poole uses film clips, sketches, and photos to discuss pre-Columbian discoveries of the new world. In the seventh century BC, the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa and may have sailed to the Azores and Canary Islands. They were followed by the Celts, who journeyed to Iceland and Greenland according to accounts by St. Brendan, who set sail from Ireland between 565-573 and encountered a crystal column in the sea, either an iceberg or glacier. He also possibly sailed to the Azores and Canaries and possibly to Mexico since Cortez discovered, in 1519, that the Aztecs celebrated a blend of paganism and Christianity and spoke of Quetzalcoatl, a legendary white priest. The Vikings or Norse also migrated to Iceland in 874. Around 900 they discovered Vitramannaland, or "white man's land," possibly an Irish settlement in North America. In 930 Gunnbjorn discovered Greenland, and in 982 Erik the Red colonized it. Bjarni Herjulfsson, blown off course, explored part of the American coast unknowingly in 985. Leif Erikson also sailed along the shores of the American continent and established a colony named Vinland the Good, its exact location disputed. Other evidence of pre-Columbian Viking discovery includes maps and the existence of the stone Newport Tower in Rhode Island. Edmund Plowden referred to the tower in a 1632 petition, but this may have been elsewhere than Newport. Additional exploration included that of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524, the Venetian expedition in 1398 described in "The Zeno Narrative", and the Portuguese discovery of Newfoundland in 1450 and Labrador in 1492.

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.

Lynn Poole and Dr. John Woodburn, with the Masters in Teaching program at Johns Hopkins University, interview five students about their winning Science Fair projects: Roger Roberts demonstrates his computer-programmed "logical mouse" in a maze; Wayne Grimm discusses zonal distribution of land snails of Maryland; Ann Taylor experiments with radioactivity measurement in the dials of a clock; John Clauser demonstrates his electronic interceptor computer; and Jeannie Hodges discusses her study of goose pimples. Mr. Poole also talks with the 1950 National Science Fair winner, Dominic Edelen, who is now a design specialist in the manned satellite division of Martin Co. in Baltimore, Md.

In this first program of a three-part series, Dr. I. M. Levitt, Director of the Fels Planetarium of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, describes the shape, characteristics, and historical formation of the moon. He explains that over 30,000 craters have been counted on the moon, including Tycho, and that the dark areas called "seas" by Galileo are actually deserts. Dr. Levitt predicts that because of its low gravity and lack of atmosphere the moon will be used as a launching site for exploring the solar system. For the same reasons, the moon is also an ideal place for asthmatics and heart sufferers. He discusses the Saturn rocket project under Wernher von Braun, which will launch a rocket to the moon. He anticipates that between 1962-68 a man will land on the moon, but first robots must probe the lunar surface and gather data such as temperature. A man models a Navy full pressure suit similar to what astronauts will use in their lunar exploration. Dr. Levitt also predicts that within the next 20 years a nearly self-sustaining colony will be established on the moon. Displaying a lunar housing simulation model, Dr. Levitt describes how fuel, water, atmosphere, and quarters can be made from readily available basic elements on the moon and how algae and hydroponics could form the basis of the food supply. He maintains that the moon is the key to the conquest of space because the earth's gravity is so strong it limits our exploratory distance. Lynn Poole concludes the program by recommending Levitt's recent book "Target for Tomorrow."

In this second program of a three-part series, astronomical historian and lecturer John Williams Streeter describes Venus as the morning and evening star and tells the viewers when and where to observe it. He gives the planet's distance from sun and earth, its solar orbiting time, its measurements, and its mass, density, and surface gravity and then announces, "That's all we know." A brief history of the astronomers who made telescopic observations and early drawings of Venus include Galileo in 1609, Francesco Fontana in 1645, Gian Domenico Cassini in 1666, Francesco Bianchini, William Herschel, and Johann Schroter in 1788. Mr. Streeter says that Venus apparently has an atmosphere because it reflects sunlight and thus must be covered by dense white clouds. Venus's atmosphere was first thought to be like that of the carboniferous period on earth, but a subsequent spectroscopic study showed nothing but carbon dioxide, permitting no life as we know it. However, the Venusian ocean may support one-celled animals. Mr. Streeter describes the history of speculated life on Venus and shows early sketches of Venusians. Film clips show the 1959 balloon and gondola designed by Johns Hopkins University's Dr. John Strong and piloted by Navy commander Malcolm Ross. It rose to an altitude of 80,000, and its spectroscopic data, analyzed by physicist Charles Moore, showed measurable water vapor on Venus. In order for a rocket to reach Venus, Mr. Streeter predicts, it would launch from the moon, choose a route requiring the least fuel, and not reach its destination for over two years.