Remember in Back to the Future II how Doc Brown overcame the plutonium problem by installing a "Mr. Fusion" in the DeLorean? Well, that might have seemed like a joke of some kind, or at least wishful thinking, but it looks like it might just become a reality… sort of.

That's because a group of researchers from the Institute of Technological Research (IPT) and the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) are working on a Mr. Fusion that would inject gas heated by electrical discharges at an ultra-high temperature into garbage in a turbine, decomposing it and creating an alternate source of energy. It would create energy while also getting rid of trash, solving two problems at once. There's no word on whether or not it'll generate enough power to travel through time, but we can hope. — Adam Frucci

IDG Now, via Coolest Gadgets