television
How realistic is the brain procedure in 'Severance?'
Apple TV
Much more than you'd expect. That's according to neurosurgeon Vijay Agarwal, who also serves as a medical consultant for the hit television series. In the latest episode of the First Opinion Podcast, Agarwal talked with editor Torie Bosch about the science behind the show. I helped edit the conversation, and was particularly interested in what Agarwal had to say about how soon we may be able to split our own brains into an "innie" and "outie."
"There actually is precedent for this sort of procedure," he said. "We are much closer to 'Severance' being reality than almost anybody outside the fields of neuroscience and neurosurgery realizes."
Uh, what? Take a listen to learn more about the similar procedures that are already being performed, how they inspired the "Severance" surgery, and why it actually makes sense that the hole in Mark's head is so big.
one big number
4.8 million
That's the number of children who died before reaching age 5 in 2023, according to a WHO report released Tuesday. Another report from the global health agency found that in the same year, 1.9 million stillbirths occurred.
Since 2000, the annual rate of child deaths has dropped by more than half, WHO reports, while the rate of stillbirths has dropped by more than a third. But the pace of that improvement has slowed over the last decade, and each child's fate is dramatically impacted by where they are born. "In the face of global funding cuts, there is a need more than ever to step up collaboration to protect and improve children's health," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press release.
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