In My Library: Alan Alda

There’s a reason why there’s an Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University: The “M*A*S*H” star is obsessed with finding ways we can better understand the natural world.

Alda’s even set up the Flame Challenge, in which scientists compete to answer questions such as this year’s puzzler, “What is sleep?” in ways an 11-year-old can comprehend (a panel of them will pick the winner).

Given his fascination with phenomena, one wonders if Alda ever had to choose between science and acting.

“No, never,” he says. “I always wanted to be an actor and a writer. But as a little boy I’d do experiments, trying to see if I could get something to blow up. I did get my parents to explode. In anger!”

More from the New York Post.