FILE- In this April 19, 2012, file photo, actor Alan Alda attends a screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Alda, the host of of PBS’s “Scientific American Frontiers,” and a founder of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, is sponsoring an international contest for scientists, asking them to explain in terms a sixth-grader could understand: “What is time?” (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)
FILE- In this April 19, 2012, file photo, actor Alan Alda attends a screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Alda, the host of of PBS’s “Scientific American Frontiers,” and a founder of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, is sponsoring an international contest for scientists, asking them to explain in terms a sixth-grader could understand: “What is time?” (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)
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MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) â” Professor Alan Alda has a homework assignment for scientists. Yes, that Alan Alda.
The actor known for his Emmy-Award-winning work on the TV show “MASH,” is a founder of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University on eastern Long Island.
Alda tells The Associated Press the center is sponsoring a contest asking scientists to explain, in terms a sixth-grader could understand: “What is time?”
Well-known for his affinity for science, Alda is the longtime host of PBS’s “Scientific American Frontiers.”
He says society must have a better understanding of science.
This is the contest’s second year. Last year, scientists were asked to explain what a flame is. Alda says he was 11 years old when he asked a teacher that question and got an answer he didn’t understand.
