Contributor

Kristin Houser

Staff Writer

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Kristin Houser is a staff writer at Freethink, where she covers science and tech. Her written work has appeared in Business Insider, NBC News, 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.

Prior to joining Freethink, Kristin was a staff writer for Futurism and wrote several animated and live action web series.

Fashion

Nike unveils its first hands-free sneaker: The GO FlyEase

The GO FlyEase is Nike’s first completely hands-free sneaker — and the design was inspired by a letter from a teenage boy with cerebral palsy.

Kristin Houser

Food

This ice cream is made from lab-grown vegan milk

Disappointed by available milk alternatives, the startup Perfect Day developed lab-grown vegan milk that’s molecularly identical to the kind from cows.

Kristin Houser

Genetics

These mutant zebrafish are growing arm bones

While studying mutant zebrafish, scientists discovered that a single genetic mutation caused the fish to start developing the beginnings of arms.

Kristin Houser

Climate Crisis

Elon Musk offers $100 million for direct carbon capture tech

A new Xprize competition funded by Elon Musk offers $100 million in prizes for scalable direct carbon capture technology.

Kristin Houser

Coronavirus

Trees and insects helped create Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine

Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine was nearly 90% effective in a U.K. trial — and the ingredients for the promising subunit vaccine came from insects and trees.

Kristin Houser

Coronavirus

Fauci predicts universal COVID-19 vaccine availability by April

Anthony Fauci expects April will be “open season” for COVID-19 vaccines. Here’s why his prediction about COVID-19 vaccine availability appears accurate.

Kristin Houser

Sustainability

Diy factory turns plastic waste into super-strong bricks

Kenyan startup Gjenge Makers turns plastic waste into plastic bricks that are stronger, lighter, and cheaper than their concrete counterparts.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

Two new Mars missions just reached the Red Planet

Two of the three Mars missions expected to reach the Red Planet in February 2021 have successfully completed the journey.

Kristin Houser

Computer Science

Cloud-based quantum computing, explained

Cloud-based quantum computing is making the cutting-edge tech available to people today, not years from now when the systems are more readily available.

Kristin Houser

Coronavirus

Ask the crowd: When can I get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Volunteers are creating online tools powered by crowdsourced data to help people answer the question: where and when can I get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Kristin Houser