パンダパウアー！
It's the year 2050 and Mr Yamada has received his bank account summary. He checks to make sure the last utilities bill was paid properly. He frowns. There's no name of a gas company on there, or an electrical company either. Then he relaxes.
There it is~ "Food Processing Co," followed by a low debit from the account. It's low, naturally, because it's all garbage anyway; and it's all thanks to the pandas. Life is good.
Alright, so it's 2010 and the idea of panda's somehow recycling food waste into electricity for the world is fairly preposterous, but if one Professor. Fumiaki Taguchi can just figure out the hydrogen power cell problem, it's an entirely feasibly reality.
It all started in 1998, when he wondered about the giant panda's ability to eat bamboo. It's mostly woody material, and teeth asides, what about the giant panda makes it so equipped for such a difficult dinner? Whereas most people would stop there, Prof. Fumiaki Taguchi instead took himself off to Ueno zoo and borrowed all the panda poo that they could supply in order to seek out the dirty truth.
It was a bacteria. The daddy of all digestive bacteria which could break down hardy bamboo and just about anything else besides. When put into a 100KG container of garbage, it took but 17 weeks to break it down to just 3; a significant improvement on currently available commercial waste bacteria. What's more, the missing 97KG had become nothing but water and carbon dioxide, however Prof. Fumiaki Taguchi also says that by combining this research with his previous studies in, wait for it,
termite saliva he can change the by product into hydrogen instead. So there you have it; Japan, some panda poo and and a drooly termite may be on the verge of solving the world's energy crisis.
And taking out the trash to boot.
Sauce:
Panda-poop prof scoops Ig Nobel honor | The Japan Times Online
Ig Nobel Prize: Panda poo power ::: Pink Tentacle