Last May, neurotech startup Neuralink received the federal green light to test its brain implant in human clinical trials. Now, less than a year later, Neuralink’s founder Elon Musk announced on X (formerly Twitter) that its brain-computer interface (or BCI) device was successfully placed in a human recipient.

“The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well. Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk posted late Monday.

According to a company blog post, its clinical trials — described as part of Neuralink’s Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (or PRIME) Study — involve placing and installing their quarter-sized N1 brain implant, using a robot along a region of the brain controlling movement intention. The chip is designed to pick up the user’s brain signals, which are used to control an external device.

Our ability to walk upright is among the most mystifying aspects of our species. Despite biologists' best efforts, we have yet to find a smoking gun in the fossil record to explain it. But in a new paper out this week, researchers have narrowed in on a seemingly innocuous structure that might be behind it all: the inner ear of a 6-million-year-old ape fossil.

The researchers published their work in the journal The Innovation.