Can you guess this character?
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Mystery character and book of the week
| Appearing early in the long arc of these stories, this character is known for their love of reading and books.
Named for a royal from a tale meant to be told when the snow flies, this character possesses such a sharp intellect that they are gently derided for being a smarty-pants.
Although this character knows how to do some extraordinary things, they struggle to master a skill that they should have been born with.
The author who created this character imbued them with lots of special traits. In an unforgettable scene in which they first encounter two other key characters, our mystery character shows off, chiding the new friends for not knowing enough about who and where they are.
Do you know who the mystery character is?
Here’s one more clue: when our character’s creator suggested that the character had fallen in love with the wrong person, it set the internet on fire.
That’s how influential this character and the books they appeared in were.
When you know who created this character and who the character is, email Kerri at: kmiller@mpr.org.
If I said: “Early one morning, the sun was shining, I was laying in bed…” would the rest of that Bob Dylan lyric flow right into your brain? And maybe out of your mouth!
Music, as acclaimed neuroscientist and University of California Davis memory lab director Charan Ranganath writes, is exceptionally adept at – not only transporting us to a place and time – but in helping us paint in the context so that the memory is vivid.
In his new book, “Why We Remember,” Ranganath describes what researchers are learning about what the brain is doing when it's capturing memory and what it's doing when we forget.
Ranganath says forgetting means that the brain is prioritizing information that is necessary to us and that when we remember something inaccurately, it’s because “our brains were designed to navigate a world that is constantly changing.”
The book is a wealth of accessible and well-explained science – including some clever experiments that were undertaken to prove out theories about memory.
But I found the chapters on sleep, error-driven learning and memory among the most interesting. Ranganath writes: “Error-driven learning is a fundamental principle that explains the dynamic nature of memory. I believe,” he adds, “that it even reaches beyond our conscious experiences, extending into the myriad activities that go on in our brains when we’re fast asleep.”
— Kerri Miller | MPR News |
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| | A prescription to modernize public health |
The pandemic was a crucible for public health. What are the key takeaways? Epidemiologist Dr. Sandro Galea offers his diagnosis and a prescription for public health going forward in his new book, “Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time.” | |
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