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.

Climate Crisis

Making it rain with “cloud seeding”

China is using cloud seeding to create rain where and when it’s needed. Will it try to use geoengineering to combat climate change next?

Kristin Houser

Coronavirus

FDA authorizes first over-the-counter COVID-19 test

The FDA has authorized the first over-the-counter COVID-19 test for home use, but buyers still have to send their samples to a lab for processing.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

SpaceX’s Starship exploded, but the flight was a success

During a test flight, a SpaceX Starship rocket prototype soared to a record height of eight miles, completed a successful “belly flop” — and then crashed.

Kristin Houser

Heads up display lets firefighters see through smoke

Qwake Technologies’ C-Thru is a heads up display that combines AI, augmented reality, and thermal imaging to help firefighters battle blazes.

Kristin Houser

Robotics

Ballerina teaches robot to dance with her during pandemic

“Quantum ballerina” Merritt Moore choreographed duets during lockdown — and then programmed a dancing robot to perform them with her.

Kristin Houser

Asteroids

Can Japan’s asteroid samples show us how life began?

JAXA’s Hayabusa2 has successfully returned asteroid samples to Earth. Its next mission? Gather information that could help prevent an asteroid impact.

Kristin Houser

AI navigation system teaches itself to steer internet balloons

Loon is using a new AI navigation system trained via reinforcement learning to control its fleet of internet-beaming balloons in Kenya.

Kristin Houser

MIT built an AI to design robots

MIT has developed an AI capable of robot design — all you need to do is tell RoboGrammar the bot’s goal and the available body parts.

Kristin Houser

Sustainability

What does a solarpunk future look like?

The writers, artists, and activists of the solarpunk movement envision a future in which we’ve overcome the problems inspiring today’s dystopian sci-fi.

Kristin Houser

Healthcare

Cancer blood test trial to launch in the UK

The UK is trialing a blood test designed to detect 50 types of cancer at once, which could be a gamechanger in cancer screening if proven effective.

Kristin Houser