This cash will be distributed by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an organisation which aims to "enable doctors to cure, prevent or manage all diseases during our children's lifetime".

Some of the projects are likely to ring alarm bells among paranoid people who fear technological progress will come at the expense of human freedom.

One of the researchers who will receive funding is Dr. Rikky Muller, CEO and founder of a firm called Cortera.

She is working to develop "clinically viable and minimally invasive neural interfaces" designed to be used by people suffering severe disabilities.

Dr. Muller hopes that recording brain activity will allow paralysed people to control prosthetic limbs.

Her implants can be placed inside the brain and have the potential to change people's behaviour by altering their "physiological responses" – the term for reactions which take place in response to external stimuli.