The magazine's editors and a panel of 75 scientific experts in a variety of disciplines select the winners. Technologies submitted are judged on their broad-based impact on society rather than on their solving very specialized problems.
Winners typically involve significant breakthroughs in technology.
The molecules are custom designed to seek out mercury, lead, chromium, and other toxic or precious metals. It can be applied to water and soil cleanup at sites with prevalent mercury contamination, industrial waste water treatment, and metal recovery. Each grain of ceramic material is 5 to 15 micrometers in diameter and contains a densely ordered array of cylindrical pores. The chemically fitted monolayers reside within the pores, with the molecules binding at one end to the ceramic material. The molecules' free ends are then available for binding to a targeted metal species passing through the pore.