I've been playing this game for about a week with no difficulties. I got up to the point where I'm supposed to abandon everything and leave the first island. (I haven't left yet, because I still want to build up some more cash and reduce heat.) Now, the research button starts flashing to indicate there's a new item to research, and when I click the button, the game crashes. The last few items I unlocked was the brainiac machine for the archives and a mysterious prompt that tells me I have discovered freaks.

Any advice on how to salvage this game? I'd really like to see what happens next.

I found a solution here, I'm posting it to help others.