As an 11-year-old boy, Alan Alda was mesmerized studying a candle flame. Finally, after hours of watching it flicker and dance, a question began to creep up from the back of his mind: What is this thing we call a flame? We can see the light it gives off, we can feel the heat, but what is it?  In an attempt to find an answer to his question, young Alan Alda asked one of his teachers: What is a flame? And the teacher replied, “A flame is oxidation.”

It seemed that he would have to be satisfied with that explanation for the time being, but the question still haunted him, and decades later, Alda asked this same question to the scientific community, and thousands answered. The Flame Challenge was a call for scientists to improve upon “It’s oxidation” and explain to an 11-year-old child just exactly what a flame is. Continue reading →