Recently,
I heard Alan Alda on the National Public Radio's Science Friday talking about an interesting program he helped
establish called “The Flame Challenge.”
Each year 11-year-old kids get the opportunity to ask a question that is
then given to scientists around the world to answer “in language that is
clearly understandable by an 11-year-old.” To make sure it’s clearly understandable,
11-year-olds worldwide also are the judges.
This year’s question: “What is sleep?”
The
Flame Challenge is an outgrowth of The Alan Alda Center for Communicating
Science, a cross-disciplinary organization founded in 2009 at Stony Brook
University in New York and housed, interestingly enough, in the Department of
Journalism. Its goal “is to help
scientists and science writers learn to communicate more effectively with the
public.”
Too
often, Alda said, both scientists and science writers have amazing things to
share but they simply don’t know how to share them in clear and concise
language. “The ability to communicate,”
Alda says, “is what makes us human and allows technology to advance.”
When
it comes to “effectively communicating” there’s little doubt Alda knows of what
he speaks. A
6-time Emmy winner and 6-time Golden Globe winner, he is best known for his
role as Hawkeye Pierce on the long-running show M*A*S*H. What isn’t
well-known is that he wrote a couple dozen of the shows, including the
award-winning finale, and won an Emmy for his writing. He is, in fact, the first person to win Emmys
for acting, writing, and directing in the same series. He also has written several books, including
a memoir with the clever title: Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself.
Alan Alda – his 79th
birthday is today
Here’s
a link to The Flame Challenge.
Happy (and clear) writing!
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