INVENTOR MARSHALL MEDOFF SHOWS OFF HIS IDEAS AND HIS PROCESS TO CREATE FUEL FROM PLANT LIFE, SUNDAY ON "60 MINUTES"

Inspiration Came from Meditation at Walden Pond

Marshall Medoff is not a trained scientist, but that didn't stop him from embarking on a challenge that has stumped scientists for decades. This unlikely inventor claims to have discovered a novel way to extract sugars from inedible plant life - or biomass - and turn them into environmentally friendly transportation fuel, among other useful products, in a clean and cost-effective way. Lesley Stahl reports on Medoff on the next edition of 60 MINUTES Sunday, Jan. 6 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Medoff takes Stahl and 60 MINUTES cameras on a tour of his facilities where he transforms the sugars into fuels as well as bioplastic that can be programmed to disintegrate in just weeks.

Medoff says he got his inspiration from Walden Pond, where poet Henry David Thoreau once contemplated man and nature. "I used to run out to Walden, which wasn't that far away. What I thought was, the reason people were failing [to find a cost-effective process] is they were trying to overcome nature instead of working with it," he tells Stahl.

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