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.

Two pictures of a woman using a modified VR headset.

Scientists tweak Meta VR headset to measure brain activity

A modified VR headset that records brain activity reveals how being immersed in VR impacts people on a neurological level.

Kristin Houser

An image of a potentially hazardous purple rock.

Asteroids

Algorithm finds a potentially hazardous asteroid missed by NASA

HelioLinc3D, an algorithm designed to spot potentially hazardous asteroids in telescope images, just found its first threatening space rock.

Kristin Houser

A satellite image of a cloudy sky with ocean warming.

Climate Crisis

Reduction in air pollution may be accelerating ocean warming

Recent ocean warming may be the result of IMO 2020, a rule that dramatically reduced air pollution from the shipping industry.

Kristin Houser

Three tubes of wypy, a weight-loss drug, on a black background.

Medicine

Weight-loss drug cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by 20% in large trial

The weight-loss drug semaglutide reduced patients’ risk of heart attacks, strokes, or death from heart disease by 20% in a large trial.

Kristin Houser

A person is holding up a small circular solar cell made from lunar regolith.

Aerospace

NASA gives Blue Origin $35 million to turn moon dust into solar cells

A technology that autonomously fabricates solar cells out of lunar regolith just earned Blue Origin a $35 million NASA contract.

Kristin Houser

Brain

AI-powered brain implant restores feeling, movement in man with paralysis

A first-of-its-kind AI-powered brain implant has restored movement and feeling in a New York man with quadriplegia since 2020.

Kristin Houser

Cancer

Targeted therapy kills every type of cancer in the lab

City of Hope researchers are trialing a targeted therapy shown to kill more than 70 types of cancer in preclinical tests.

Kristin Houser

Brain

Australian military is funding a computer chip merged with human brain cells

The Australian military is funding research into "organoid intelligence" that involves stimulating lab-grown mini-brains with electrodes.

Kristin Houser

A metal container labeled with "levitation" using room-temperature superconductors.

Engineering

Scientists rush to recreate room-temperature superconductor

Claims that a material called “LK-99” is a room-temperature superconductor are being put to the test by the scientific community.

Kristin Houser

Four different electron microscopy images of giant viruses on a purple background.

Virology

These giant viruses are unlike any we’ve ever seen before

Scientists have discovered a variety of “giant viruses” unlike any ever seen before in Massachusetts’ Harvard Forest

Kristin Houser