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.

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

A class of high schoolers attempt to perform a psychological experiment on their teacher who has just lost his wife and daughter in a terrible accident. However, the leader of the experiment seems to be performing a study all his own.

A routine inspection for a Space Navy ship leads to confusion over a vague item. A hasty fix before a military inspection causes more stress than intended.

After discovering a mysterious alien artifact on the Moon, human astronauts endeavor to uncover its purpose and message from an extraterrestrial civilization.

A young man working in an intense laboratory falls madly in love with a machine that can invent new sensations on this skin - until the experiment is destroyed.

A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

The night watchman at the wax museum is a simple man, and he loves his job, especially the wax figure of Napoleon, whom he considers a special friend. Though a bachelor, he is a romantic, and gets caught up in the affairs of a young couple who use the wax museum as their meeting place.

The first manned trip to Pluto discovers some fascinating and alarming information. A trip to Pluto uncovers information that changes science and human history as we know it.