By Brennan Hartigan, Staff Writer
In the science and medical world, some big news was recently tested! Elon Musk, the man most notable for creating Tesla and being the CEO of SpaceX, has found a new way to enhance and restore human body parts. On August 28 2020, Musk went live to showcase his newest project, called the Neuralink. Musk stated the link will hopefully gain the potential to cure blindness, hearing, memory, limb function, paralysis, and Parkinson’s disease. Musk’s goal is that he wants the device to go inside the skull, where it can act as a messenger and communicate with the neurons in your brain.
While watching the presentation, Elon brought out pigs to show live examples of how the link works. There were 4 pigs at the show. One pig had no chip and was acting as a normal pig would, “obviously happy and healthy,” as Elon said. He then showed the natural setting a regular pig would act in. The second pig had 1 chip placed in his head and then removed. The second pig was acting normal and “still happy and healthy”. The third pig had 1 Neuralink in its the body for about 2 months. The link is located in the head of the pig, and reads the neurons in the pig's snout. Whenever the snout touches an object or substance the scale monitoring the actions of the pig will spike and make noises similar to a heart monitor. The pig is acting as a normal hungry creature would and was still a "healthy and happy pig, who was initially shy but now had high energy.” The final pig at the show had 2 links, and was “healthy and happy, indistinguishable from a normal pig.”
The surgery will be conducted by a robot within an hour's time, and should not require anesthesia! As of now, the big questions are still unanswered, like ‘will it work on humans?” and “will it really cure neurological issues?”. Hopefully soon we will truly know the importance and meaning behind this new invention.