In the first half of the 20th century, innovators combined electronics with chemistry to make new measuring instruments that extended our senses into the world of minuscule molecules—into the chemical domain. In the hands of many researchers, scientists, and engineers, these electronic chemical instruments changed our world. At the dawn of this instrumentation revolution entered a crucial scientist-entrepreneur: Arnold O. Beckman. Throughout his life, Beckman developed a multitude of innovative scientific instruments. He built a thriving business that made those instruments readily available for use in industry, Nobel Prize–winning research, and life-saving medicine. Later in life he donated much of his fortune to advance science. His legacy is not only in the instruments he created but in how those instruments continue to expand our view of the world.

Director: Glenn Holsten
Producers: Mariel Carr and Chayne Gregg
Director of Photography: Phil Bradshaw
Editor: Greg Heller