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.

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.

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 researcher and his assistant conduct neuropsychological experiments on dogs with the understanding that the dogs will be terminated immediately after, but the reality of their killing is much more difficult to cope with.

A neuroscientist on the brink of a scientific breakthrough dies in a car crash. Yet her consciousness is still alive.

While he pens an excuse to withdraw from a community project, a biology professor reflects on other times he avoided confrontation and ruminates on unresolved dilemmas in his life.

Two female biologists spend a few months in a hotel in the Northeastern United States to research shore life, and whereas one pursues romance with men, the other feels spurned by unrequited love.

A research psychologist visits a peculiar asylum patient who recounts his life story. The patient warns the researcher about how obsession with the pursuit of knowledge can make one lose sight of their humanity until it is unsalvageable.

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.