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.

DeepMind’s virtual playground suggests path to general AI

DeepMind’s virtual playground, XLand, could help create general AI by overcoming the problem of insufficient training data.

Kristin Houser

Robotics

This beach-cleaning robot is a Roomba for sand

An all-electric, beach-cleaning robot called BeBot can sift through sand to extract pieces of debris too small for traditional systems.

Kristin Houser

Transportation

Cyclists’ stress levels could improve road safety

To improve road safety, a new study suggests we measure cyclists’ stress levels as they navigate city streets to identify dangerous areas.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

Space manufacturing startup plans to build first off-world factory

Space manufacturing startup Varda Space Industries has raised enough money to bring its dream of building the first space factory to fruition.

Kristin Houser

Coronavirus

Pfizer has manufactured the first batch of Delta variant vaccines

Pharma giant Pfizer has already developed and manufactured ingredients for a COVID-19 vaccine targeting the highly contagious Delta variant.

Kristin Houser

Holograph tech “teleports” Olympic badminton competition

Japanese telecom company NTT is using holograph tech to recreate Olympic badminton matches at a venue 22 miles away in real time.

Kristin Houser

Brain

Helmet worn at home shrank man’s brain tumor by a third

A new brain tumor treatment shrank a man’s aggressive glioblastoma tumor by nearly a third — and all he had to do was wear a helmet at home.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

Water vapor found on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede

Astronomers have detected the first evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s massive moon Ganymede.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

Light from behind supermassive black hole detected for first time

The first direct observation of light from behind a supermassive black hole confirms a prediction in Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Kristin Houser

Food

Adding one gene to rice and potatoes increased yields by 50%

The insertion of a gene found in animals prompted potato and rice plants to produce 50% more food and exhibit drought-resistant qualities.

Kristin Houser