Alan Alda Speaks at American Association for the Advancement of Science

Alan Alda, the actor and Water Mill resident, is also a visiting professor at Stony Brook University and the namesake of the university’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, whose mission is to advance laypeople’s understanding of science.

To that end, Alda was invited at speak in Chicago two weekends ago at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Read a conversation with Alda from The New York Times and watch a video interview on his interest in science.

Alda also conceived The Flame Challenge, which asks scientists for simple answers that schoolchildren can grasp to such questions as “What is a flame?” or “What is time?”