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.

A silhouette of a woman standing in front of a blue background, symbolizing resilience in the face of covid-19.

Coronavirus

Got COVID but felt fine? It may be your genes.

A person’s chances of having asymptomatic COVID are dramatically increased if they possess a certain genetic mutation.

Kristin Houser

A scientist is conducting research on xenotransplantation while staring at a computer screen.

CRISPR

Startup aims to transplant pig hearts into kids in 2024

eGenesis hopes to transplant pig hearts from genetically engineered swine into young children with serious heart defects by 2024.

Kristin Houser

a hand holding a plate with a lab-grown cotton plant in it.

Sustainability

Lab-grown cotton is on its way to consumers

Cellular agriculture startup Galy has signed a deal that will make its lab-grown cotton available to consumers for the first time.

Kristin Houser

A machine utilizing pink liquid for immunotherapy research.

Cancer

Natural killer cells now have a better shot at destroying cancer

A 3D-printing-based approach could make immunotherapies based on natural killer (NK) cells better equipped to destroy cancer.

Kristin Houser

a white self-driving car parked in a parking lot.

Transportation

VR for self-driving cars makes training safer, more efficient

A system that acts like a virtual reality headset for self-driving cars makes training the vehicles safer and more efficient.

Kristin Houser

Medicine

A functional cure for brittle diabetes is now available in the US

Islet transplantation, a procedure shown to functionally cure some people with hard-to-control brittle diabetes, has been approved in the US.

Kristin Houser

A 3D rendering of a fusion rocket spacecraft.

Aerospace

A fusion rocket designed to travel 500,000 mph is under construction

British startup Puslar Fusion is developing a fusion rocket it says will travel 500,000 mph, expanding our reach throughout the solar system.

Kristin Houser

Cancer

New AI predicts who is most at risk of pancreatic cancer

An AI that identifies patients most at risk of pancreatic cancer could lead to earlier diagnosis of the deadly disease.

Kristin Houser

A close up of a woman's teeth showcasing remarkable ability to regenerate.

Medicine

Drug to grow new teeth heads to human trials

A drug that causes animals to grow new teeth could one day allow us to regenerate teeth lost to injury, disease, or old age.

Kristin Houser

Cancer

MIT’s vaccine-enhanced CAR-T cell therapy destroys solid tumors

Adding a cancer vaccine to CAR-T cell therapy, a revolutionary treatment for blood cancers, boosts its efficacy against solid tumors.

Kristin Houser