Sign in

Matthew Fainor

@matthewfainor.bsky.social
285 followers 464 following 42 posts

Tissue engineer by day | writer, knitter, scifi reader, and tea enthusiast by night

PostsRepliesMedia
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 10/10/2025
Using a material originally developed as a bioluminescent algae-powered biosensor, biodesigner Chris Bellamy, scientist Nicho Schramma, and fashion icon Iris van Herpen created a living textile that reacts to touch.
000
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 10/10/2025
Really interesting science-art collaboration story that speaks to something I think a lot of biodesigners are looking for: deeper connections with other organisms as a way to connect more deeply with other people. nautil.us/a-living-gow...
nautil.us
A Living Gown
Iris van Herpen’s new bioluminescent dress made of algae debuts in Paris
200
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 31/05/2025
undark.org/2025/05/29/m...
undark.org
'Make America Healthy Again' Report Cites Nonexistent Studies
The original report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.
020
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 11/04/2025
LITERALLY Really devastating cuts being proposed wwww.septa.org/wp-content/u...
wwww.septa.org
000
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Conrad Benner @streetsdept.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Philly was recently named the “Best City for Street Art.” And if you’re interested in learning more about this dynamic world, I’d love to invite you to check out my podcast with WHYY called, Art Outside!
1233452
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Conrad Benner @streetsdept.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
1/6 New sticker from local scientist and artist, @sarahmackattack.bsky.social, spotted in Philly. I texted Sarah to learn more: “Shrimp and Krill are these tiny little animals that you don’t think of as being particularly powerful in the oceans, but in the huge schools they’re incredibly important.”
348440
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 28/03/2025
I wish all Americans would watch this, in particular Trump/Musk supporters who might consider this without their pre-existing biases that blind them. This is framed so well. This is how I would be convincing people that they are going to end up funding this huge scam where they are the losers.
24018
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Nathan Grayson @nathangrayson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
If you consider, as Gareth Watkins laid out so wonderfully last month, that AI, which is "embarrassing, destructive, and looks like shit" and as a result is "the new aesthetics of fascism", Altman and OpenAI's singling out of Studio Ghibli starts to make more sense. Especially when figures like Altman are being increasingly described as "technofascists". This isn't another laugh, another coy attempt at circumventing someone's rights to their creations; the way this has been pitched and sold is a direct attack, a flex revelling in the fact creators have so far proven largely powerless to stop these vultures from looting the history of human creation wholesale.

So yeah, it sucks! Which is why people need to stop sharing that shit. If you accidentally fell into it via a chat or a message from a friend or whatever, and made an image because you thought it was cute, cut it out. If you're trying to dunk on the practice by linking to articles or examples that showcase the work, inadvertently flooding people's timelines with examples of this ghoulish, stolen work, stop.

Nobody wants to see that shit. Nobody needs to see it.
1033391652
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 27/03/2025
Every new announcement about some update to an AI image generator makes me seethe. People with the audacity to say OpenAI is “making art accessible” so gravely misunderstand what art and the purpose of art is in our society. Not to mention the energy, the water, or the theft.
000
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 24/03/2025
The state of my fridge has reached a new lowest point at the end of this grocery cycle. It’s just a jar of olives, eggs, and about 6 things of pickles/pickle juice. And some really old kimchi 😂
010
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
I usually stay around my own neighborhood, so when I venture down to south Philly I get the treat of seeing a different set of street art. This one is by Sean Lugo, whose signature is animal heads on people’s bodies. His stuff is SO good. Love this cat.
Calico cat head wearing headphones on a woman’s body who is talking with her hands on the radio. She’s got green pants and a yellow sweater over a blue shirt, very cool, and the sign above the cat says she’s on air. She’s talking into a metal wxpn microphone.
735627
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 08/03/2025
“That trail of tiny footprints, indiscernible to the naked eye, is remarkably effective at protecting the tree from pathogens and pests. That makes ants a legion of unlikely warriors—one humans should consider enlisting in the fight to grow food in a warming world.”
000
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 08/03/2025
BUGS ARE SO COOL!! “The ant scurries along on six nimble legs. It catches up to its peers, a line of antennaed bugs roaming the winding surface of a tree, perpetually hunting for food. While doing so, each unknowingly leaves antibiotic microorganisms secreted from its feet” grist.org/food-and-agr...
grist.org
A secret weapon in agriculture's climate fight: Ants
Ants — yes, ants — could protect apples, nuts, cocoa, and other beloved crops from disease and climate change.
110
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 05/03/2025
😐
010
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 04/03/2025
I love the South Street Art Mart!
000
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Lindsay Lindhult, PhD | Science Illustrator & Arthropod Artist @lindzeamays.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
I've received several inquiries as to why I don't paint many butterflies. This is why. There are massive multitudes of more interesting and ecologically vital arthropods out there who are underrepresented in our societal advocacy. I want to help remedy that through art. #bugsky 🐝🕷️🐡🦋🪲🌱
17110
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 03/03/2025
This is one of my favorite kinds of stories in that it surprised me! These activists are challenging the notion that “mine sites are considered ideal locations for prisons or a dumping ground for waste, rather than places of ecological value.” grist.org/justice/biso...
grist.org
Bison, not prison: Activists buy a prison site to rewild the land
A coal mine was the first to wreck the land. Now activists want to keep another extractive industry from taking root there: prisons.
010
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 24/02/2025
Sad news for my Philly friends. share.inquirer.com/z6Xct9
share.inquirer.com
DOGE cuts four local U.S. Fish & Wildlife workers, three of them from the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, another from S. Jersey
All three sacked employees from the Heinz refuge were under the one-year mark in employment. One of them —a bio-technology worker —was just two weeks shy of a full year of service.
031
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 23/02/2025
Thanks, Ryan! Just trying to find words that cut through some of confusion and chaos for myself. Glad to hear they’re resonating 🙂
000
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 21/02/2025
I am on the bus, minding my business when the man in front of me begins frantically using 3 phones at once. THREE! What unspeakable force drove him to such madness??? And what could he possibly need to be doing like that???
000
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 20/02/2025
A healthy scientific ecosystem answers questions of all kinds for people of all identities in order to unravel the complexities of our biology. Unfortunately, attempts to suppress, censor, or erase rigorous, well-designed research only serve to suppress, censor, and erase the needs of real people.
010
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 20/02/2025
As we continue to advocate for a well-funded, well-rounded, rigorous US research and regulatory ecosystem, I thought about how messy biology is and this sentiment came to mind:
100
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 20/02/2025
As I was rounding up some of this news, it all felt a bit silly, like there were bigger, more existential, more important issues to focus on. But sharing good work is part of supporting science in general! And these talented scientists deserve their flowers 💐
100
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 20/02/2025
Science news, get your science news here! I know a lot is happening right now, but people are still doing excellent research in the field of #RegenerativeMedicine, work that supports people of all kinds. Some of our field’s recent highlights ⬇️ 🧠 🦴🫀 fleshyfutures.substack.com/p/the-tissue...
fleshyfutures.substack.com
The Tissue #7: Recommendations from one scientist to another
FDA approves first MSC therapy, woven PCL hip implant moves toward phase I clinical trial, iPSC treatment for Parkinson's disease
120
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Allison Raine Chapman @alli.gay · 13/02/2025
UPDATE: The National Park Service have now removed “queer” and the “Q+” from the web page for stonewall, along with any mentions of transgender people.
Stonewall page on the National Park Service website:

"By the time of Stonewall... we had 50 to 60 gay groups in the country. A year later... 1500."
Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.
411039395
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 09/02/2025
I presented our lab’s work trying to identify which patients with low back pain may be suitable candidates for cell therapy treatments and which may be non-responders. You can see more about the project: www.ors.org/wp-content/u...
050
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 09/02/2025
Really excited to share the scientific research we do in the Gullbrand Lab at #ORS2025. At a time when the scientific priorities, structure, and funding in the US are being reassessed, it’s very grounding to be surrounded by talented scientists working to solve real problems for real people.
From left to right: Sarah Gullbrand with short curly hair in black blazer and pink sparkly boots with her arm around Matthew Fainor in light pink sweater. Janai Augustin in black sweater and grey plaid pants with his arms around Matthew and Brianna Orozco in grey plaid pants and black blazer, her arm around Emily Sharp dressed in a white turtle and flowinf blue pants. Standing in front of their two academic posters.
1193
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 08/02/2025
The Mauck Lab is well represented at #ORS2025. We work on such a wide variety of problems, that hopefully there’s a little bit of something for everyone! Presenters on Bluesky: @emsharp.bsky.social @meghankup.bsky.social
082
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Jason C. Marvin, Ph.D. (he/they) 🏳️‍🌈 @jasoncmarvin.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
It's extremely disappointing to see BME colleagues being silent about the imminent danger that the new administration poses to the trans community. Though one can hardly be surprised when the field has been platforming those who hold explicitly transphobic views.
1103
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Oh, god, nickel! Blood! Blood! @snickettes.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Oh please please i am begging, don't use generative AI for any reason if you can avoid it. It's being marketed as a quick time-saver, but it's messy, inaccurate, it is putting entire industries of people out of work, and the environmental impacts (energy and water usage) are huge and debilitating.
71640414
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 06/02/2025
The Gullbrand Lab is talking science at #ORS2025 this week! Check out our presentations if you’re in Phoenix and interested in intervertebral disc degeneration, cell therapies, and more! @sgullbrand.bsky.social @emsharp.bsky.social @orssociety.bsky.social
084
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Deb JJ Lee @jdebbiel.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Would you? Could you? RT for my 29th bday 🙂‍↕️🎂 nothing else is happening in this country
30690307
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Inject science into your Valentines Day with LOVE BUGS! Each card has a fact about the animal AND something you can do to help the animal. They come in packs of 20 😎 Art by Michele Scott! Supports @skypeascientist.bsky.social! Get 'em here 👇 squidfacts.bigcartel.com/product/love...
a picture of 4 insect valentines cards, including the cards up front with the rosy maple moth and the praying mantis. The rosy maple says "Are you a lamp because I wanna be around you" and the mantis says "You look good enough to eat". The image is superimposed with the words "Love bugs valentines" and then on the bottom, Skype a Scientist's logo and Michele's Logo and "Sales support Skype a Scientist"
1419882
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
My love of body horror comes from the Zoobooks page where live, moving animals were gradually stripped of their flesh
Otter anatomy zoobooks page
14470111
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 31/12/2024
To all the books I read in 2024, thanks for the great times. Would definitely recommend almost all these books, but if I could only pick three, I’d tell everyone they must read A Psalm for the Wild Built, A Certain Hunger, and Crying in H Mart.
030
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Science News @scinews.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Breathing polluted air increases the risk of osteoporosis. #Science Open Access www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
35621
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 24/12/2024
Twas the night before the night before Christmas
020
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Writing is thinking. It’s not a part of the process that can be skipped; it’s the entire point.
15667811771
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 12/12/2024
I’ve loved working on this project with everyone on our incredible spine team! If you are interested in large-scale disc tissue engineering, you know what to do 👀 ⬇️
030
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 12/12/2024
I love them 😭
010
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 09/12/2024
Congrats @emsharp.bsky.social
020
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 06/12/2024
Snail mucus?? I didn’t know we were farming that
010
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 06/12/2024
What a crazy insect-human collaboration!
000
Reposted by Matthew Fainor
Almosthomefree Art & Design @almosthomefree.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Cover for Hexagon Issue No.19 Speculative Fiction Magazine. Cover at based on L.M. Guay's short story. Thanks so very much to @hexagonmagazine J.W. Stebner for the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful magazine. Great contributors this issue, check It out here: hexagonmagazine.ca
0164
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 04/12/2024
This is exactly the kind of story I started Fleshy Futures to write, a story about the incredible scientists working on new #biotechnologies to heal both people and our planet. And to think it all started out because I wanted to know why the growth factors I use in the lab are so expensive!
010
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 04/12/2024
I also talked to @coledeforest.bsky.social about how this technology could one day be used to produce his lab's innovative photo-responsive #biomaterials for tomorrow's #TissueEngineering therapies.
110
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 04/12/2024
In the latest Fleshy Futures story, I dive into how Canadian startup Future Fields is using the common fruit fly to transform our #biomanufacturing supply chain.
120
Matthew Fainor @handle.invalid · 04/12/2024
You're telling me the next generation of medical therapies will be made INSIDE fruit flies? But how? And why? fleshyfutures.substack.com/p/fruit-flie...
fleshyfutures.substack.com
Fruit flies will produce the next groundbreaking medical therapy
And, according to a new life cycle assessment, will significantly reduce biotech's environmental footprint
2156