The Wolff-Kishner reduction is a chemical reaction that reduces ketones or aldehydes to hydrocarbons. It involves refluxing the carbonyl compound with hydrazine and a strong base like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. This causes the carbonyl group to be reduced to a methylene group, forming the corresponding hydrocarbon. The reaction proceeds through formation of a hydrazone intermediate that is deprotonated and collapsed to lose dinitrogen and form an alkylanion, which is then protonated to yield the reduced product. This reduction method is advantageous over other methods as it avoids the use of strongly acidic conditions that could cause side reactions.