“The Thread of Life” dates to 1960 and was part of the Bell Science Series of films. The film is about heredity, genetics, DNA and how it works. The screenplay was by Rowland Barber, a writer perhaps best known for the 1960 novel The Night They Raided Minsky’s. Owen Crump directed; Robert McKimson directed the animation. This part of the show discusses natural and artificial mutations in genes and how these mutations can have positive and negative effects. This is shown particularly through how cells exposed to radiation reproduce. This is followed by an explanation of the discovery of DNA, which Dr. Baxter shows in detail with a model and animations of how DNA reproduces.
0:34 a lactose intolerant baby, 1:03 people on a monitor speaking to Dr. Baxter, 1:41 animation of the chromosomes determining the sex of a baby, 3:06 an animation with chromosomes highlighting why men are more likely to be colorblind, 3:40 Dr. Baxter speaking to the camera and people in monitors, 5:57 animation of how camels have changed, 6:31 mice with gene mutations, 6:58 goldfish with different mutations, 7:13 Dr. Baxter speaking to his audience, 7:41 a new strain of wheat, 7:57 hybrid corn varieties, 8:16 different examples of improved genetics including animals, rice, trees, and seedless watermelons, 9:17 Dr. Hermann J. Muller and his laboratory, 9:43 abnormal fruit flies after being exposed to radiation, 10:31 comparison between regular and radiation exposed cells dividing under a microscope, 11:46 different plants that have been exposed to radiation, 12:10 scientists creating artificial penicillin strains, 12:47 cancer cells under the microscope, 13:12 a man undergoing chemotherapy, 13:54 Rhine river salmon, 14:09 DNA, 14:42 Dr. Harriet Taylor doing an experiment with antibiotic resistant bacteria, 16:32 bacteria spelling DNA, 17:04 a photograph of DNA under the electron microscope, 17:45 J.D. Watson and F.H.C Crick, 17:52 Dr. Baxter with a model of a DNA molecule, 19:34 an animation showing what happens when DNA divides during reproduction, 20:44 Dr. Baxter with the DNA molecule model, 21:48 animation of DNA molecule creating itself aligned with different genes interjected with footage of different looking people, 22:26 scientists in labs, 23:01 a man looking at pictures of galaxies, 23:26 footage of different animals to highlight genetic diversity, 24:40 messages of thanks to different scientists and organizations that contributed to the program, 25:47 for Warner Bros Studios, Production Executive David H. DePatie,
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