Alan Alda’s “Flame Challenge”

posted July 5, 2012 by Miles O'Brien

Any parent can remember the moment when their child asks one of those seemingly simple, yet devilishly hard questions: you know, “why is the sky blue?”… “why are plants green?”…and “where do babies come from?

One of the toughest in this category is “what is a flame?” In 1947, an 11-year old Alan Alda asked his teacher that question and got a non-response: “oxidation” – thus ensuring young Alan would continue on his career path of acting instead of taking a turn toward science.

But now Alda has taken a turn at trying to bridge the gap between scientists and the rest of us.

Read the rest of this post here at the PBS NewsHour site.