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The Futurist is your daily tech, cosmic, and science (both weird or otherwise) newsletter with articles and content curated just for you.

In today's edition:

// AI teacher

// Daffodils

// Nuclear fusion rocket

// Leaving Earth

UK space firm is building a nuclear fusion rocket engine that will get hotter than the sun

"Pulsar Fusion, a UK-based space firm, is building a nuclear fusion-based rocket engine that could exceed temperatures on the Sun. The construction of the largest-ever fusion rocket engine has begun, and its exhaust speeds could exceed 500,000 miles per hour.

Nuclear fusion has long been proposed to answer our energy and climate change woes as it promises a cleaner power source. Inspired by the Sun, scientists have been working to build nuclear fusion reactors and have succeeded in generating record-high temperatures but not more energy than they have put in.

However, Richard Dinan, the founder, and CEO of Pulsar Fusion, is confident that nuclear fusion will propel spacecraft long before it powers devices on Earth. His company has been working with the UK Space Agency to build a fusion-based rocket engine that will surpass the temperatures of the Sun when it gets to work."

// Interesting Engineering »

Daffodil extract fed to cows could be 'game changer' in reducing methane production

"Daffodils could provide the key to more sustainable livestock farming, according to scientists who say lab tests have proven promising. Adding an extract from the flowers to livestock feed reduced methane in artificial cow stomachs by 96%. A team of researchers at Scotland's Rural College hope that when trialled in real cows, it could reduce methane emissions by at least 30%."

// Sky News »

We can leave the Solar System, but arriving anywhere is not happening soon

"In the coming decades, Voyager 1 will be joined by other craft sent along solar-escape trajectories: the Pioneer probes, New Horizons, and more. And now that we've crossed this astrophysical threshold, we are forced to ask a difficult question: Is this it? Is this all we'll ever accomplish beyond the Solar System, a scattering of wayward probes sent out into the infinite night?

For decades, scientists, engineers, and dreamers have worked to develop technologies that can radically expand our presence outside the Solar System. But they all face one enormous challenge: the brain-breaking enormity of the cosmos. Sustained interstellar travel is simply beyond the means of our technology, and any reasonable projection of anything we'll develop over the next few generations."

// Ars Technica »

Harvard will teach students using an AI professor next semester

"Starting this fall, a popular intro-level coding course at Harvard University, CS50, will be taught by an AI instructor… 'Our own hope is that, through AI, we can eventually approximate a 1:1 teacher:student ratio for every student in CS50, as by providing them with software-based tools that, 24/7, can support their learning at a pace and in a style that works best for them individually,' CS50 professor David Malan told the university's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson."

// The Byte »