On a train ride to a metallurgical conference in Chicago, a consultant tries to avoid the debate between pure and applied sciences, but he cannot avoid it when he gets cornered in the washroom by two professors and an undecided bright new recruit.

In seventeenth-century Delft, a fanatically curious fabric merchant invents the microscope. Even as he neglects and abuses his family, he discovers a new world of life.

When a physics professor reaches the cusp of his greatest work, he pressures his friend into sharing research information and lands himself into trouble with the U.S. military.

When a scientist discovers science-based information that negates his world's established creation myth and belief system, he sends the world into chaos, with some zealots clinging desperately to their dogma, while others attempt to embrace the unknown future.

A Black, American-born physicist ignores his colleagues' warnings about tampering with the timeline and— in an effort to alter a history of racism and violence towards his people—decides to change history himself.

A scientist notes the discovery of a new chemical compound with physics-defying capabilities.

A collection of excerpts regarding humanity's various pursuits of science throughout time.

An academic prides herself in her powers of observation, but finds herself unable to change the fate of those suffering around her—whether it be a microscopic rotifer in biology lab, a long-dead boy whose letters she reads from the 1800s, or her twenty-one-year old cousin.

A man reviews a book written by an esteemed scientist, which detailedly describes a series of events collectively known as the “neural chernobyl,” and speculates about the future of this ongoing biological disaster.

While attending a science convention in Hollywood, a physicist begins to notice similarities between quantum theory and her own life.