{"id":4019,"date":"2013-02-20T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/soapboxscience\/?p=4019"},"modified":"2013-02-20T14:52:47","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T14:52:47","slug":"am-i-making-myself-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/soapboxscience\/2013\/02\/20\/am-i-making-myself-clear","title":{"rendered":"Am I Making Myself Clear?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alan Alda<\/a>, actor, director, writer, and founding member of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, has had a lifelong interest in science. He hosted PBS\u2019 Scientific American Frontiers from 1993 to 2005, an experience he has called \u201cthe best thing I ever did in front of a camera.\u201d Considering his career \u2013 from M*A*S*H and The West Wing on television to an array of notable movie and theater roles \u2013 that\u2019s quite an endorsement. After interviewing hundreds of scientists, Mr. Alda became convinced that many researchers have wonderful stories to tell, but some need help in telling them. Mr. Alda has played an active role in the Center for Communicating Science, starting the Flame Challenge last year, and leading workshops that use improvisational theater games to help scientists communicate more directly and personally. He was co-chair of the 2009 World Science Festival in New York City, hosted the 2010 documentary mini-series The Human Spark, and has written a play about the life of Marie Curie.<\/em><\/p>\n

I probably learned the best lesson about talking in plain words from my youngest grandson. We were on vacation in the Virgin Islands, walking on a path that led to the strangest tree we had ever seen. The trunk was covered with angry looking thorns. I thought, wow, this is a great chance to talk with Matteo about how this tree might have come to look like this. So, we sat on the ground and had a wonderful exchange of ideas about evolution for 45 minutes. He was only 6 or 7, but he was taking in everything I told him.<\/p>\n

The next day he was swimming with his cousin and asked her a question about science. She said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you ask your Grandpa about that?\u201d And Matteo said, \u201cI\u2019m not makin\u2019 that<\/span> mistake again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve tried not to make that mistake, either. I strive mightily now to talk as simply as possible (\u201cbut no simpler,\u201d as Einstein is supposed to have said.) The trick, of course, is to be clear and engaging without oversimplifying. It\u2019s hard, but it can be done. Speaking in plain words about the most complex things was something Richard Feynman<\/a> did brilliantly.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often wanted to see this ability to talk about hard things in plain words spread, so last year I tried an experiment. I asked scientists to enter a challenging contest to explain what a flame is so that an 11-year-old could understand it. They would be judged by the ultimate authority: real 11-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We launched The Flame Challenge<\/a> through the Center for Communicating Science, which I had helped found at Stony Brook University, and it immediately caught the imagination of people from all over the world. Hundreds of entries came in from scientists in 31 countries and were judged by 6,000 kids from across the globe. This year, the Flame Challenge is sponsored by both the AAAS and the American Chemical Society.<\/p>\n

But, as popular as the challenge became, I don\u2019t think we realized what a tough task it would be to explain a flame in a few words. (I didn\u2019t know, for instance, that Michael Faraday<\/a> had taken several lectures to do it. And that was without getting into modern physics.) In spite of the difficulty, though, we got some wonderful answers. The winning entry was a spectacular animated video<\/a>:
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