Contributor

Kristin Houser

Managing Editor

Contact

[email protected]

Kristin Houser is the Managing Editor of Freethink. Her articles on science and technology have been featured in NBC News, RealClearDefense, and the World Economic Forum’s Agenda, among other publications, and Stephen Colbert once talked about a piece on “The Late Show,” to her delight.

Kristin is currently based in Pittsburgh, and prior to joining Freethink, she was a staff writer for Futurism, launched an LA-based music blog, and wrote several animated and live action web series.

side-by-side images of a clear lens with a spiral shape embedded in it

Inventions

New “spiral” contact lenses let you see up close and far away

New spiral-shaped multifocal lenses bend light in a way that corrects problems seeing up close and far away, even in poor lighting.

Kristin Houser

A humanoid robot grabs a blue crate off a stack in a warehouse

Robotics

Watch: Figure’s humanoid robot just learned something new

Robotics startup Figure AI just shared a video showing its humanoid robot completing a fully autonomous “real world task.”

Kristin Houser

A laser beam is exiting a ground-based space observatory and pointing toward the night sky

Aerospace

Fusion startup plans to shoot space junk with lasers

Japanese startup EX-Fusion plans to test whether lasers it is developing for nuclear fusion can remove space junk from orbit.

Kristin Houser

CRISPR

CRISPR could eradicate horrific parasite that’s killing cattle

Uruguay is developing a CRISPR gene drive to eradicate the New World screwworm fly, a horrific agricultural pest.

Kristin Houser

An image of a musical note on a black background.

OpenBCI’s new VR headset reacts to your brain and body

OpenBCI is reshaping the relationship between humans and the virtual world with Galea Beta, a headset that measures the body and brain.

Kristin Houser

A laptop with an AI software engineer's hand on it.

AI startup Magic is building a “superhuman software engineer”

Magic AI is developing an advanced AI software engineer it sees as a milestone along the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Kristin Houser

a collage of a satellite above earth and pollution

Climate Crisis

Google AI is searching the world for methane leaks from space

Google will provide computing resources to MethaneSAT, a project to identify climate-harming methane leaks from space.

Kristin Houser

an illustration of Odysseus on the moon's surface

Aerospace

US startup makes history with stressful, landmark moon landing

Intuitive Machines just made history with the first private moon landing — and the mission was a nailbiter.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

T-Minus: Water discovered on asteroids, first space factory comes home, and more

Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring the return of Varda's space factory, a Russian space weapon, and more.

Kristin Houser

A collage featuring an injector pen for the weigh-loss drug Saxenda and a person's hand holding pills

Addiction

Weight-loss drug reduces cravings for opioids in small study

A first-of-its-kind trial found that GLP-1 agonists, a popular kind of weight-loss drug, could help people overcome their opioid cravings.

Kristin Houser