Contributor

Kristin Houser

Staff Writer

Contact

[email protected]

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.

Climate Crisis

Students get $5 million from Elon Musk for carbon-removal ideas

An Elon Musk-funded XPrize competition has given teams of students $5 million to develop ideas for carbon removal systems.

Kristin Houser

Robotics

Vaccine robot administers doses without needles or human help

Canadian startup Cobioni has built a vaccine robot that can deliver a dose into a patient’s arm without a needle or any human help.

Kristin Houser

Languages

Startup breaks through “accent barrier” with real-time translator

Three Stanford students have launched Sanas, a startup developing the world’s first real-time speech accent translator.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

Russian satellite strike creates huge cloud of space debris

A Russian anti-satellite weapons test threatened the safety of ISS astronauts by adding more space debris to Earth’s orbit.

Kristin Houser

DIY

Apple finally agrees you have a right to repair its tech

In a reversal of its previous stance on the right to repair, Apple is now giving customers access to parts and tools for DIY repairs.

Kristin Houser

Virology

Second patient clears own body of HIV, hinting cure is possible

Two “elite controllers” that no longer have any replicable HIV virus in their bodies may hold the key to a cure for HIV.

Kristin Houser

Neuroscience

“Dancing” molecules repair spinal cord injuries in paralyzed mice

A treatment for spinal cord injuries was able to reverse paralysis in mice by “dancing” to connect with cells near the site of the injury.

Kristin Houser

Robotics

Powered exoskeletons may be the ultimate fitness machines

Enhanced Robotics is selling a powered exoskeleton to help people achieve their fitness goals, and it doesn’t cost thousands of dollars.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

Perseverance is collecting more rock samples from Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover is on the hunt for its next samples from Mars, scraping away a small circle of rock to see beneath its surface.

Kristin Houser

Wearables

Wearable robot helps people with paralysis sing

Seoul National University researchers have built a wearable robot that helps people with spinal cord injuries breathe, cough, and sing.

Kristin Houser