The Download: brain bandwidth, and artificial wombs

Final week, Elon Musk made the daring assertion that sticking electrodes in folks’s heads goes to result in an enormous improve within the charge of information switch out of, and into, human brains.

The event of Musk’s publish was the announcement by Neuralink, his brain-computer interface firm, that it was formally looking for the primary volunteer to obtain an implant that incorporates greater than twice the variety of electrodes than earlier variations to gather extra information from extra nerve cells.

The entrepreneur talked about a long-term objective of vastly growing “bandwidth” between folks, or folks and machines, by an element of 1,000 or extra. However what does he imply, and is it even attainable? Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

This story is from The Checkup, MIT Know-how Overview’s weekly biotech publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.

All the things it’s good to find out about synthetic wombs

Earlier this month, US Meals and Drug Administration advisors met to debate learn how to transfer analysis on synthetic wombs from animals into people.

These medical units are designed to provide extraordinarily untimely infants a bit extra time to develop in a womb-like atmosphere earlier than getting into the skin world. They’ve been examined with a whole lot of lambs (and a few piglets), however animal fashions can’t totally predict how the know-how will work for people.