One of many in a series of annual Christmas lectures given by Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, a Lebanese chemistry educator who spent most of his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The 1973 lecture was the first recorded by Wisconsin Public Television. The 1973 lecture includes chemically-induced color changes, multiple uses for liquid nitrogen, using helium to change the pitch of Shakhashiri's voice, an appearance by Bucky, the UW mascot, and help from chemistry professors Odell Alvestor Taliaferro and Vince Genna. This video was taken from a DVD, which itself was made from an unknown magnetic tape. Any distortions in the image and sound of the video are inherent in the DVD itself.