SALON

Wednesday, May 1, 2013 12:02 PM UTC

Alan Alda isn’t interested in your scientific mumbo jumbo

The film and television star is on a mission to teach physicians and physicists to use more accessible language

By

Topics: Associated Press, Alan Alda, Science, M.A.S.H., Hollywood,

Alan Alda isn't interested in your scientific mumbo jumboAlan Alda (Credit: AP/Richard Drew)

STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — Among the procedures Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce performed on “M.A.S.H.” was an end-to-end anastomosis.

Most of the viewers, actor Alan Alda concedes, had no idea he was talking about removing a damaged piece of intestine and reconnecting the healthy pieces.

Today, the award-winning film and television star is on a mission to teach physicians, physicists and scientists of all types to ditch the jargon and get their points across in clear, simple language.

The former host of the long-running PBS series “Scientific American Frontiers” is a founder and visiting professor of journalism at the Stony Brook University Center for Communicating Science, which has just been named in his honor.

“There’s no reason for the jargon when you’re trying to communicate the essence of the science to the public because you’re talking what amounts to gibberish to them,” Alda said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

A better understanding of science, Alda said, can benefit society in ways great and small. Physicians can more clearly explain treatments to patients. Consumers can decipher what chemicals may be in their food. And lawmakers can make better decisions on funding scientific research.

“They’re not going to ask the right questions if science doesn’t explain to them what’s going on in the most honest and objective way,” said Alda, 77. “You can’t blame them for not knowing the jargon — it’s not their job. Why would anybody put up money for something they don’t understand?”

Alda, who lives in New York City and has a home on eastern Long Island, said that as his 12-year tenure as host of “Scientific American Frontiers” was ending in 2005, he began seeking out a university interested in his idea for a center for communicating science. He described himself as a “Johnny Appleseed” going from university to university shopping his idea.

Stony Brook, a 24,000-student state university about 70 miles east of Manhattan, “was the only place that understood what I was trying to say and thought it was possible,” he said.

The center launched in 2009. At a gala last week, the Long Island school officially renamed it the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.

“Alan did not casually lend his celebrity to this effort,” said Stony Brook President Dr. Samuel Stanley. “He has been a tireless and full partner in the center since its inception. During the past four years, he has traveled thousands of miles championing its activities. … He has helped train our faculty and develop our curriculum, and he personally teaches some workshops.”

Alda has also helped publicize a contest the center sponsored the past two years asking students and scientists around the country to find simple ways to explain such concepts as “What is a flame?” or “What is time?”

Among the courses taught by the center is an improvisational acting class that teaches scientists ways of communicating their thoughts clearly to others.

“We’ve learned it’s important to set up vivid analogies,” said Lyle Tomlinson, a 24-year-old neuroscience graduate student from Brooklyn who’s working as a teaching assistant, noting he used the effects of caffeine in a morning cup of coffee to begin a discussion on the nervous system.

Rep. Steven Israel, whose district includes the Stony Brook campus, said educating people on the importance of science is key to America’s competitiveness in the 21st century economy.

He recalled watching a congressional hearing on climate change in which, he said, “a bunch of scientists were trying to teach congressmen about the science of climate change and the congressmen were trying to teach the scientists about politics. It was as if both sides were speaking alien languages.”

Alda shared what he called his best examples of clear communication with Tomlinson and his fellow teaching assistants.

About a decade ago, Alda said, he was in Chile filming a segment for “Scientific American Frontiers” when he was stricken with sharp stomach pains. He was evacuated from an 8,000-foot observatory and taken in an old rickety ambulance to a small, dimly lit clinic, where a doctor examined him and said he would require life-saving surgery.

“Some of your intestine has gone bad, and we have to cut out the bad part and sew the two good ends together,” the physician explained.

“And I said, ‘You’re going to do an end-to-end anastamosis.’ He said, ‘How do you know that?’ And I said, ‘Oh I did many of them on ‘M.A.S.H.’ That was the first operation I learned about on M.A.S.H.’”

After the classroom erupted in laughter, Alda concluded:

“He didn’t waste any time on me trying to figure what he was talking about. He said it in the clearest terms possible. He didn’t sacrifice any accuracy by making it clear.”

More Frank Eltman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
205 points206 points | 19 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
122 points123 points | 39 comments
vote
Would we give up burgers to stop climate change? New study suggests if we reduce our intake of animal products by 25%, we can halt climate change
114 points115 points | 49 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
47 points48 points | 16 comments
vote
Capitalism, not feminism, killed home cooking–and fixing our broken food system is gonna take a lot more than some privileged women embracing “new domesticity”
34 points35 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations