Elon Musk's neuroscience startup Neuralink on Friday unveiled a pig named Gertrude that has had a coin-sized computer chip in its brain for two months, showing off an early step toward the goal of curing human diseases with the same type of implant.

Co-founded by Tesla Inc and SpaceX CEO Musk in 2016, San Francisco Bay Area-based Neuralink aims to implant wireless brain-computer interfaces that include thousands of electrodes in the most complex human organ to help cure neurological conditions like Alzheimer's, dementia and spinal cord injuries and ultimately fuse humankind with artificial intelligence.

"An implantable device can actually solve these problems," Musk said on a webcast Friday, mentioning ailments such as memory loss, hearing loss, depression and insomnia.

Musk did not provide a timeline for those treatments, appearing to retreat from earlier statements that human trials would begin by the end of this year. Neuralink's first clinical trials with a small number of human patients would be aimed at treating paralysis or paraplegia, the company's head surgeon Dr Matthew MacDougall said.

Neuroscientists unaffiliated with the company said the presentation indicated that Neuralink had made great strides but cautioned that longer studies were needed.

Musk presented what he described as the "three little pigs demo." Gertrude, the pig with a Neuralink implant in the part of its brain that controls the snout, required some coaxing by Musk to appear on camera, but eventually began eating off of a stool and sniffing straw, triggering spikes on a graph tracking the animal's neural activity.

Musk said the company had three pigs with two implants each and also revealed a pig that previously had an implant. They were "healthy, happy and indistinguishable from a normal pig," Musk said. Musk said the company predicted a pig's limb movement during a treadmill run at "high accuracy" using implant data.

Musk described Neuralink's chip, which is roughly 23 millimeters (0.9 inch) in diameter, as "a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires."

"I could have a Neuralink right now and you wouldn't know," Musk said. "... Maybe I do."

One comment from a webcast viewer described the animals as "Cypork."

Graeme Moffat, a University of Toronto neuroscience research fellow, said Neuralink's advancements were "order of magnitude leaps" beyond current science thanks to the novel chip's size, portability, power management and wireless capabilities.

Stanford University neuroscientist Sergey Stavisky said the company had made substantial and impressive progress since an initial demonstration of an earlier chip in July 2019.

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Tesla's battery supplier says it's made a huge breakthrough in battery technology that could power electric-vehicle sales for years to come.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., the Chinese car-battery giant that supplies Tesla and Volkswagen, is ready to produce a battery that can last 16 years and 2 million kilometers, or 1.24 million miles, the company's chairman, Zeng Yuqun, told Bloomberg over the weekend.

Zeng said the company was ready to start fulfilling orders for the battery but didn't disclose whether anyone had bought any yet. He added that the battery cost about 10% more than average EV batteries.

Battery life is one of the main areas holding back widespread EV adoption, and a long-lasting battery could be transformative for the industry. Batteries are the most expensive part of EVs, so if one with a longer life could be transferred into a new car, it could significantly lower the price. Bloomberg said warranties on EV batteries cover roughly 150,000 miles or eight years.

Reuters reported in May that Tesla was making a million-mile battery with CATL. Sources told Reuters that Tesla planned to launch the new battery in China first as part of a wider strategy to reposition the company. Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider's question about whether the battery announced by CATL was developed jointly.

In his interview with Bloomberg, Zeng seemed upbeat about the industry's prospects, which took a downturn with the coronavirus pandemic. "The pandemic may have a lasting effect throughout 2020," he said, "but won't be a major factor next year."

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According to the research team, this tech could revolutionise the existing multi-billion dollar industries including Electric vehicles, consumer electronics, drone and other products that depend on the usage of a Lithium-Ion battery.

Indian scientists are working on next-gen battery technology to make EVs super-efficient. A joint research team from IIT Bombay and Shiv Nadar University is working on new Lithium battery cells. Researchers claim that the Lithium battery they are working on will have three times more energy density than the conventional Li-ion battery. If the claims of these scientists are valid, then it can revolutionize the electric vehicle industry.

These new battery cells are based on Lithium-Sulphur (Li-S) chemistry. Not only this, but the Li-S batteries will also be cheaper than the current Li-ion batteries. Besides, the technology developed by scientists would allow the environment-friendly production of these battery cells.

As per the reports, the production of battery cells requires the by-products of petroleum along with agro-waste elements and copolymers such as cardanol and eugenol as cathodic materials. Cardanol is nothing but simply the by-product of cashew nut processing, whereas eugenol is the clove oil.

So basically this technology uses bio-molecules in the form of cathodes for Li-S battery cells. Though this might be a new concept, it promises some great results. If your energy density has increased by three times then it simply means more range for your electric cars.

Bimlesh Lochab, Associate Professor at Shiv Nadar University told PTI, “The capability of three times more energy density, coupled with being a significantly safer technology, holds the promise of accelerating the adoption of clean, battery-led energy across multiple domains.”

Professor Lochab explained by giving an example of a car. He said a car with a 400 km range can travel 1600 km on a single charge with this battery technology.

Cars like Tesla depend on Lithium-Ion battery technology so for the future of electrification this could be an important invention.

The new battery technology synthesises a bio-based molecule, capable of commercial-scale production. The research includes a new type of cathode for Li-S batteries, which can help push the promising battery technology to higher performance levels.

 

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