[fredkingham]

He's been doing this since the 70s. When I broke my back 10 years ago there was another panarama in which he'd shown dramatic improvement in rats.

He's only got round to spinal injury's now because its something occasionally improves without aid and is therefore unreliably for scientific tests. He was looking at other types of injury (I can't remember the name) where the nerves to the arm are torn out, as this never shows any signs of recovery.

He's now moved on to knife wounds as these offer the cleanest types of complete break ie very unlikely to improve later.

Raisman has been thorough and methodical about this. Its his life's work and I have no doubt he'll succeed

(I was actually in hospital with Dan Nicholls, whose father has been funding Reiman's research http://www.nsif.org.uk/)

[jtheory]

It's easy to be confused about the time scale on this kind of work; it's hidden from public view until there's an appropriately newsworthy milestone.

As you point out, this is not a "Eureka!" moment at all; it's a waypoint on an arduous path that has taken decades of work, and will continue on (largely equally slowly) for a long time to come.

The operation discussed in the article was two years ago; it's taken that much time (with intense physical therapy the entire time!) before he has gotten the mobility he has now.