Elon Musk's Neuralink puts computer chips in pigs' brains

Elon Musk's latest breakthrough business is not space travel or electric cars but instead journeying into the brain.

Neuralink, a startup he co-founded, has implanted new wireless technology into the brains of pigs with the aim of helping people with severe neurological conditions. 

The company unveiled a pig named Gertrude that has had a coin-sized computer chip in its brain for two months. 

The scientists hope that this could, some day, help find a cure for conditions such as Alzheimer's, dementia, as well as memory loss, hearing loss, depression and insomnia.

However, the company gave no timelines or commitments as to when this might be possible with human subjects. So this is unlikely to be available in the near future, if indeed ever. 

If this type of technology is possible, then these breakthroughs could move us towards more pre-emptive healthcare or have huge implications for the way pharmaceutical companies develop and test new drugs.