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.”  … Read more