In a Science editorial, actor, playwright and science advocate Alan Alda challenged scientists to answer a simple-sounding question in a way that would capture the imagination of an 11-year-old.

“What is a flame? What’s going on in there? What will you tell me?”

Basically, he would like to find the next Carl Sagan. And he was inspired because he asked that question as an 11-year-old and got a nondescript answer of 'oxidation'.

Physicist Ben Ames,  doctoral student at the University of Innsbruck, and his winning video, complete with science concepts set to rock music and helpful demonstrations using cupcakes and demons, won the challenge and his video was shown on the PBS NEWSHOUR website:



“I was running on all cylinders doing this,” Ames told PBS NEWSHOUR Science Correspondent Miles O’Brien . “I have never been through something so exhilarating in my life.”