Last year Mr. Alda issued a challenge: Come up with a description of a "flame" that would make sense to an 11-year old. His goal was to get scientists thinking about how to communicate their subject material to a general audience. This is something Alda is passionate about and led him to found the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. He still has the same enthusiasm for science as that 11-year old who voraciously wanted to know what a flame was. The new challenge for us in 2013: describe the concept of TIME.
He mentioned that scientists don't necessarily need to be actors to get their message across. But it made me think that sometimes we too often play the role of "scientist" that was handed down to us - stuffy, know-it-all types. I think that scientists of today need to create a new persona, to be more accessible and approachable with our message and vocabulary. Maybe an actor can help us with that.
You can listen to the interview at: http://www.wvxu.org/post/alan-alda-asks-what-time
-
