Contributor

Kristin Houser

Staff Writer

Contact

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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.

Apps

Speech impairments aren’t a problem for Google’s new voice app

Google’s Project Relate app makes it easier for people with speech impairments to communicate and use speech-recognition tech.

Kristin Houser

Urban Living

The shift to remote work is helping solve the housing shortage

Converting empty office buildings into apartment units through “adaptive reuse” is helping address the housing shortage.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

The future of space launches: a giant spinning arm in a vacuum

SpinLaunch has tested a new approach to satellite launches that flings the objects into space, rather than blasting them up with rockets.

Kristin Houser

Clean Energy

Are mini reactors the future of clean energy?

The U.K is giving Rolls-Royce nearly $300 million to develop small modular reactors (SMRs) to increase its supply of clean energy.

Kristin Houser

Music

Apes and NFTs run the first metaverse music group

Universal Music Group has just "signed" KINGSHIP, a band of four NFTs of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes, destined to perform in the metaverse.

Kristin Houser

Mental Health

Psilocybin treatment relieves depression in largest trial yet

The largest psilocybin treatment trial to date suggests that the psychedelic drug can help people with treatment-resistant depression.

Kristin Houser

Robotics

The world’s biggest industrial robot lasers off airplane paint

Dutch company Xyrec recently demonstrated a 67-ton industrial robot that uses lasers to quickly strip paint from aircraft.

Kristin Houser

Coronavirus

Deal brings COVID-19 vaccines into conflict zones

The U.S. has brokered a deal between Johnson & Johnson and the COVAX initiative to get COVID-19 vaccines to people in conflict zones.

Kristin Houser

Clean Energy

Nuclear fusion would change the world. Has its time arrived?

Energy startup Helion claims it will generate electricity from a nuclear fusion device by 2024 — a milestone that could transform the world.

Kristin Houser

Clean Energy

Zero-emission natural gas power plants are coming to US, UK

Net Power has designed a new kind of natural gas power plant that can efficiently capture almost all of the carbon dioxide it generates.

Kristin Houser