The Maya calendar recently entered another 260-day cycle.

We have science within our practices that had been confused with, like, religions or sacred.

And then that's why communities still believe in what we do and how we count time and how we advise the community to behave.

It's Friday, May 24th, and yep, today is Science Friday.

I'm SciFRI producer Charles Bergquist.

Coming up, Ira talks with a Maya calendar keeper about pre-Hispanic astronomy traditions in Guatemala.

But first, let's check in on some of the week's news

and science. Some hopeful news for people with spinal cord injuries this week. Results of an early

trial published this week in the journal Nature Medicine show some improvements in arm and hand

function after people received electrical stimulation near the site of their spinal

cord injury. Sophie Bushwick, senior news editor at New Scientist, is back to tell us more.

Hi, Sophie. Hi, Ira. This is really exciting. Tell us more about the spinal cord research.

Yeah, this is a really great intervention because these are external

pads that are placed on the skin near the site of the spinal cord injury, and the participants in this

trial received electrical stimulation from the pads while they were doing physical therapy

to improve hand and arm function. And more than two-thirds of those who tried it said they had a significant

improvement in their ability to grasp things and to move their hands after they had this treatment.

That's a lot of people, isn't it? Yes. And gains like that for someone who's maybe is suffering

from paralysis or other problems from the spinal cord injury can really be life-changing.

It suggests also that they

might have nerves regrowing as a result of this therapy because even after the pads were removed,

they continued to have this improvement. So they didn't have to be actively receiving the

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