Twenty-three years ago, we were all much younger and this was science fiction.

The final scenes in the 1985 movie Back to the Future show a modified Delorean/time machine being “refueled” with garbage to provide power.

Fast forward to 2008. This past week a group of Harvard students and alumni won $200,000 in a World Bank competition with a “dirt-powered” microbial fuel cell system to provide lighting to remote areas in Africa.

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) energy source captures energy produced by naturally occurring microbial metabolism and can generate electricity from organic-rich materials such as soil, manure, or food scraps.

In the final scene of Back to the Future, Part 1, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) dumps garbage into the fuel cell of the Delorean and he, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend, Jennifer (Claudia Wells), disappear into the future.

Looks like we’ll be able to replicate that action shortly; by 2015, if the movie is correct!