The Flame Challenge is an international contest that asks scientists to communicate complex science in ways that would interest and enlighten an 11-year-old. As the person who is organizing it this ...

Sixth-graders at Prairie Middle School had the special opportunity on Tuesday to speak with actor Alan Alda and middle school students from around the world about the answer to a simple yet complex ...

On March 2, scientists were asked to answer the question "What is a flame?" in a way that an 11-year-old would understand. More than 800 entries were received in the Flame Challenge, which was ...

Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from ...

A flame may seem like a simple thing, but explaining why it exists can be tricky. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Ben Ames, a ...

A tube from a vacuum cleaner was the neuron or nerve cell. Green pipe cleaners were the dendrites. And a set of dominoes stood in for how the “action potential” resets the cell so that a new memory ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American The Flame Challenge is an international ...