I

ES&Ts Best Papers of 2006

n 2006, ES&T published nearly 1100 papers on a wide range of topics. But which ones were the top papersthe best of the year? Our associate editors and assistant editor nominated papers that they felt were of the highest caliberthose expected to make a large and long-lasting impact on the field. I chose a subcommittee from our editorial advisory board to pore over the nominations and narrow the list to about five papers in each category: environmental science, policy, and technology. As Editor-in-Chief, I had the Solomons task of trying to choose the best among the best. We hope this is a way to bring special recognition to you, our authors, and focus attention on your high-quality papers. The Best Paper Awards are an annual event announced online in February or March of the following year. Each author receives a certificate of award and our heartiest congratulations. JERALD L. SCHNOOR

Top paper: Foundations of mercury in the environment

Complexation of Mercury(II) in Soil Organic Matter: EXAFS Evidence for Linear Two-Coordination with Reduced Sulfur Groups by Ulf Skyllberg and Jin Qian, Department of Forest Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Paul R. Bloom and Chung-Min Lin, Department of Soil, Water and Climate, University of Minnesota, St. Paul; and William F. Bleam, Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2006, 40 (13), 41744180. Ulf Skyllberg says it felt as though he did not sleep during the entire week that he and his colleagues collected the initial data that eventually became the basis for their winning ES&T paper. Their results, which show how mercury binds to natural organic matter (NOM), have the potential to trickle through the entire mercury community. Ensconced at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1999, Skyllberg spent days tending to the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) synchrotron machinery, which the team used to analyze samples from forest peatlands in Minnesota. Skyllberg had worked in Paul Blooms lab at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, as a postdoctoral fellow in 19951996. He made the temporary move from Sweden with the intention to study aluminum in soils. Instead, Bloom persuaded him that mercury
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Ulf Skyllberg (left) and Paul Bloom became fast friends after they began working together on mercury binding to reduced sulfur groups in organic material.

would be much more interesting. Bloom had a hunch that the binding of mercury to thiol ligands in organic matter would control the chemistry. He recalls saying at the time, Its gotta be reduced sulfur sites. Nobody is thinking that way; we gotta correct this! After talking to Will Bleam of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, about some ideas, the group settled on synchrotron measurements. There was not a lot of foresight in the beginning, Bloom says. Things just kind of fell together. Their collaboration ultimately resulted in images of mercury interacting with NOM at the most fundamental structural level, showing that sulfur is
2007 American Chemical Society

COURTESY OF MEG L AYESE

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

the key to binding, says Laura Sigg of Eawag (Switzerland). That information could help in determining how much mercury is available to microbes for methylation of the toxic metal. But the sleepless week in Brookhaven was not enough to confirm what the team was seeing. Skyllberg eventually traveled to Grenoble, France, to take advantage of a more powerful synchrotron, which allowed him to get more spectroscopic data. I think we were very lucky, he says. The beam line has to be optimized; it varies from one day to another. Meanwhile, several years passed and other work encroached, Skyllberg says. That time also gave Skyllberg the experience he needed to interpret the data, Bloom says. The additional measurements from Grenoble allowed Skyllberg to explain some peaks we couldnt explain with only the Brookhaven data, he continues. It made everything fall together, and we got some really good data. I think its very difficult to work with natural organic matter in general because of its hetero

geneity, Sigg says. Applying EXAFS is really quite new and technically difficult, she adds. In addition to the expense and resources necessary for EXAFS, Sigg says, the interpretation is also quite tricky. It requires quite a lot of insight to properly interpret these spectra. It seems this group has the expertise to do that. Skyllberg says that this is the first time any researchers have been able to examine mercury complexation at environmentally relevant concentrations. Previous work at relatively high concentrations was published in ES&T by his group (Environ. Sci. Technol. 1999, 33, 257261) and another (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2001, 35, 27412745). Skyllberg says that his group continues its research linking mercury geochemistry to ecological effects. But he will always remember that first week of measurements: For some reason, you work hard, you are excitedeverything is running around in your head, he says. That state of mind contributed to his fruitful, sleepless nights that week, many years ago. NAOMI LUBICK

Compound Class Specific 14C Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Associated with PM10 and PM1.1 Aerosols from Residential Areas of Suburban Tokyo by Hidetoshi Kumata, Eisuke Sakuma, Tatsuya Uchida, Kitao Fujiwara, and Mikio Tsuzuki, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science; Masao Uchida, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC); and Minoru Yoneda and Yasuyuki Shibata, National Institute for Environmental Studies (Japan), 2006, 40 (11), 34743480. Combustion-derived PAHs are important aerosol pollutants that have been linked to cancer in humans, but it is unclear exactly where these PAHs originate in cities, where their concentrations can be high. Are they mainly formed during fossil-fuel burning, or does biomass burning contribute as well? To answer those questions, Hidetoshi Kumata and colleagues turned to a technique for analyzing 14C that was originally developed for the analysis of marine sediments by Masao Uchida of JAMSTEC. Kumata and Uchida first had to adapt Uchidas method to analyze atmospheric particles. 14C has a half-life of more than 5000 years, which makes it an ideal tracer for distinguishing between combustion products from fossil fuels (14C-free) and those from modern biomass (contemporary 14C). In 2002, no paper on 14C analysis of atmospheric PAHs existed, so we thought we could be the very

Hidetoshi Kumata (second from left) and his students sample aerosols from a residential area in suburban Tokyo.

first to approach this question, Kumata recalls. However, the work proved much more tedious and difficult than the researchers had expected. After 3 years, they finally got some results. The team collected aerosol samples at a site in suburban Tokyo with no direct source from industrial input. The goal was to learn more about how PAH sources vary depending on the season and particle size: fine particles of <1.1 m in diameter are of particular concern because they can penetrate deeply into human lungs. The first difficulty the team faced was getting enough sample for the 14C analysis: 2040 g of caraPRiL 1, 2007 / ENviRONMeNTaL ScieNce & TecHNOLOGY n 2081

TE TSUO AK ASHI

First runner-up: PAHs in Tokyo aerosols

bon per analysis. We could not take any samples during the rainy seasons between May and July and in the autumn, so it finally took us 2 years to accumulate enough carbon, recalls Kumata. Another technical problem proved to be the graphitization of the carbon and subsequent radiocarbon analysis of the small samples in the accelerator mass spectrometer facility at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Uchida says. When Kumata and Uchida finally saw their results on the seasonal and particle-size variation in PAH sources, in the summer of 2005, at first they did not believe them. The 14C signal was too strong, so we first thought we could not explain our results, Kumata says. However, comparison with other data made the researchers confident that their data were correct. They concluded that biomass burning contributes much more to PAHs in Tokyo aerosols than previously assumed and is responsible for a large part of the PAH elevation seen during the winter months. While biomass-based fuels are very useful for

reducing CO2 emissions, we need to realize that biomass burning may be bad for the environment for other reasons, Kumata says. If we want to develop the use of biomass-based fuels, we also need to develop the technology to use them very efficiently, so that emissions are reduced, he adds. Uchida stresses that field-based source discrimination studies such as theirs are essential for the future regulation of atmospheric PAH pollution. The Tokyo government is eager to reduce emissions, and we need to detect whether new regulations are actually effective, Kumata says. The future goal of the researchers is to get more data on the effects of biomass burning of a larger geographical scale. Because other countries in East Asia are more dependent on biomass-based fuels than Japan and continue to develop fast, I expect that biomass burning will increase its importance as a source of energy and pollution in East Asia countries, Kumata predicts. ANKE SCHAEFER

Antibiotic Resistance Genes as Emerging Contaminants: Studies in Northern Colorado by Amy Pruden, Ruoting Pei, Heather Storteboom, and Kenneth Carlson, Colorado State University, 2006, 40 (23), 74457450. In 2002, when environmental microbiologist Amy Pruden joined the faculty at Colorado State University, researchers were already worried about the upward trend of concentrations of antibiotics in the environment. Yet, no one really understood the environmental impact of these drugs. The big question that a lot of people are raising is: what are the actual impacts and should we care? says Pruden. To find the answer, Pruden teamed up with her colleague Kenneth Carlson, who had documented unnaturally high levels of antibiotics in nearby rivers and sediments. Together they embarked on the project that led to their winning ES&T paper. Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem for human health, Pruden points out, and both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are concerned. Although the problem is largely attributed to the overprescription of antibiotics, a handful of studies have linked overuse of antibiotics in agricultural settings to resistance in human infections. Pruden knew that investigating the environmental impacts of antibiotics meant going to the source: antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in microbes themselves. Excessive agricultural and urban use had been shown to cause the antibiotics tetracycline (tet) and sulfonamide (sul) to accumulate in the sediments of the Cache la Poudre River. So, Pruden and Carlson decided to look at the levels of several tet- and sul-resistance genes in river sediments as well as in
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Amy Pruden (right) and Ruoting Pei collect samples from Cache la Poudre River.

nearby dairy lagoon water, irrigation ditch water, a wastewater recycling plant, and two drinking-water treatment plants. (Dairy lagoons are large ponds for storing waste from dairy farms; wastewater from the lagoons is eventually used for irrigation.) Using a quantitative DNA amplification technique, the team measured ARG levels and found significantly higher amounts of the genes in all sites impacted by agriculture and urban activity than at a pristine site that received less effluent from urban or agricultural activities. In addition, they found a consistent pattern in the ARG levelsthe highest levels were found in dairy lagoons, followed by irrigation ditch water and river sediments impacted by agriculture and urban activity. This suggested a potential route by which the antibiotics and ARGs spread in the environment: from dairy farms to irrigation ditches to rivers. Samples from the wastewater and drinking-water plants also contained high amounts of two kinds of ARGs, tet(W) and tet(O).

COlOR ADO STATE UNIVERSIT Y COllEGE OF ENGINEERING

Second runner-up: Antibiotic resistance genes

We think of contaminants as they get broken down into something worse, says Pruden. This is kind of analogous: the presence of antibiotics induces the presence of these genes, which are themselves contaminants. Pedro Alvarez of Rice University, an expert in ARGs, says the novelty of the paper lies in the idea that genes may be contaminants. They had the vision to recognize that genes, genetic elements, and genetic vectors repre-

sent an emerging class of environmental pollutants that we are going to have to deal with, he says. More work still needs to be done, Pruden emphasizes. For example, just how ARGs lead to antibiotic-resistant infections in humans is still unknown. Future work should tackle the problem right where it is created, says Pruden, rather than at the hos pital level [by] trying to create more antibiotics. RHITU CHATTERJEE

Hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) in theEnvironment and Humans: A Review by Adrian Covaci and Stefan Voorspoels, University of Antwerp; Andreas C. Gerecke, Martin Kohler, and Norbert V. Heeb, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa); Robin J. Law and Collin R. Allchin, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (U.K.); and Heather Leslie and Jacob de Boer, Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research, University of Wageningen, 2006, 40 (12), 36793688. Adrian Covaci and colleagues knew that ES&T wanted all the juicy detailsthe story behind the storywhen their article was chosen as one of ES&Ts top papers. In a deft maneuver to elude hungry reporters, coauthor Andreas Gerecke claimed, It was just ordinary research. The facts tell a different story. Led by Covaci at the University of Antwerp (Belgium), an international team of scientists has been studying hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs), a group of brominated flame retardants widely used in Europe and common in such hidden places as building insulation, electrical housings, and polystyrene foams. Their paper turned the spotlight on these lesser-known cousins of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) that may cause similar health and environmental problems. Gerecke says that reviewing the literature was like much of the usual labor of sciencepainstaking and filled with endless Excel sheetsbut in the end, he adds, this hard work revealed some surprises. The team pulled together research from across the life span of HBCDs, following their trail from chemical makeup to environmental release, then tracking their whereabouts in wildlife and humans, and finally investigating their modus operandi. Covaci, originally from Romania, began studying HBCDs in 2000 after coming to Belgium for doctoral studies. At the time, only a few research groups were examining the compounds. That seeming lack of interest was not by chance; with 16 possible isomers, the contaminants are notoriously difficult to analyze. Another Swiss member of the team, Norbert Heeb of Empa, made such research more feasible by developing an analytical technique that used liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. In different corners of Europe, researchers

Adrian Covaci (left) and colleagues measured levels of PBDEs and HBCDs in fish collected from the North Sea in 2001.

started piecing together bits of a puzzle over the last decade. Gerecke, Heeb, and Martin Kohler studied the stereochemistry of HBCDs. Robin Law, Collin Allchin, Heather Leslie, and Jacob de Boer traced the chemicals through food webs, and data started streaming in from other labs. Meanwhile, Covaci and Stefan Voorspoels published results in ES&T showing that the compounds behaved much like PBDEs in fish tissues (2005, 39, 19871994). ES&T highlighted the topic in a feature article later that year (2005, 39, 281A287A). In response to the feature story, the Hexabromocyclododecane Industry Working Group, which is composed of HBCD producers and users, wrote a letter to ES&T (2006, 40, 12). The group took issue with the characterization of HBCDs as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and said that the available scientific literature did not support that conclusion. The letter helped spur Covaci and many of the feature articles authors to write the review, which they say was needed to clarify and compile what is known about HBCDs. We wanted to stress in this review that HBCDs are POPs-like compounds; theyre toxic, they accumulate, theyre persistent, and they undergo long-range transport, Covaci says. Covaci says he also hoped to inform the European risk assessment for HBCDs, which has been ongoing since 1997. Although the assessment is still not complete, Covaci doesnt seem discouraged. No matter what, he says, we still have a lot to clarify and learn. ERIKA ENGELHAUPT
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ADRIAN COVAcI

Third runner-up: On the trail of hidden dangers

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Top paper: Oversimplifying climatechange policies
Air Quality Impacts of Climate Mitigation: U.K. Policy and Passenger Vehicle Choice by Eric A. Mazzi, Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Canada; and Hadi Dowlatabadi, Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Canada, and Resources for the Future, 2007, 41 (2), 387392.
PHOTODISc

A carbon tax on diesel fuel in the U.K. brought about a dangerous increase in local air pollution, the authors found.

Hadi Dowlatabadi and graduate student Eric Mazzi freely admit that they intended to make a strong comment on the dangers of politics dictating regulations with their research on how a U.K. climate-change policy for vehicles created local air-pollution troubles. Their paper, published online in December 2006, is an analysis of the steep growth in diesel-vehicle market share in the context of the U.K.s CO2 tax on vehicles. The increase in the number of diesel cars on the road unintentionally released higher amounts of ambient particulate matter (PM), so that as many as 90 additional people each year could die from illnesses related to air pollution. The ambient air pollution could have been lower if U.K. policy makers had more carefully balanced their focus on climate-change issues with
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air quality, Dowlatabadi says. Im surprised by the level of attention the paper is getting in such a short time, says coauthor Mazzi, who while a graduate student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia (UBC) studied climate-change policies, economics, and atmospheric sciences to develop the paper. Dowlatabadi, who is Canada Research Chair and professor of applied mathematics and global change at UBC and is also with the U.S. think tank Resources for the Future, was delighted by the papers impact. Ive learned from working with Hadi on this research about the potential power of having a simple and clear message, Mazzi says. The two researchers carefully made decisions about how to keep the papers scope focused and the analysis straightforward. For example, they had calculated the societal costs of the climate policy but decided to keep that out because it could lead to confusion about the papers message, Mazzi says. Yet, the authors are quick to point out that they are in favor of climate-change policy that limits CO2. What their research illustrates is the complexity of environmental policies. Dowlatabadi had been pushing his viewpoint since the mid-1990s, when he urged members of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to modify their position to reflect the complexity of pollution-related troubles throughout the world. In its third report, the IPCC emphasizes that climate-change policies will have unequivocal ancillary health benefits. Greenhousegas mitigation is really a problem of the industrialized world, Dowlatabadi says. Focusing only on global warming ignores the underlying problem in developing countries, which is poverty, and takes money away from programs that could help people improve their livelihood, their environment, and ultimately the capacity to adapt to climate change, he says. The U.K. CO2 tax is a clear example of what really happens when policy makers focus only on climate change. The U.K. eventually put in place a new regulation for diesel fuel that emits lower PM levels, after the climate policy was implemented. The regulators might have avoided the increase in air pollution by better coordinating their greenhouse-gas reduction plan with EU standards on PM and NOx emissions, the authors say. The research reflects well on the U.S. and California proposals, the authors say, which include new air-pollution standards that put diesels and gasoline vehicles on the same footing. California will now pursue policies that lower greenhouse gas emissions. Politicians are always looking for an angle that will engage the public, Dowlatabadi says, admitting his frustration. But oversimplifying things is not the way to do it. Mazzi agrees and suggests a solution: A portfolio of policies implemented at different levels of government, at different times, and aimed at different parts of the energy system is more likely to make decarbonization a reality than [is] a simple carbon tax. CATHERINE M. COONEY

Runner-up: What sustainable agriculture can do

Resource-Conserving Agriculture Increases Yields in Developing Countries by Jules N. Pretty, Rachel E. Hine, and James I. L. Morison, University of Essex (U.K.); Andrew D. Noble, International Water Management Institute (Thailand); Deborah Bossio, International Water Management Institute (Sri Lanka); John Dixon, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT, Mexico); and Frits W. T. Penning de Vries, Institute for Atmospheric Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2006, 40 (4), 11141119. Everything about this study was big: more than 200 agricultural projects, dozens of countries, decades of combined experience, and the livelihoods of millions of farmers all came into play. Jules Pretty of the University of Essex (U.K.) led an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers to bring together data on successful sustainable agriculture projects from around the world. The result is likely to be the worlds largest review that documents how farmers can grow more food while at the same time conserving land and preserving a healthy environment. The globe-trotting team analyzed 218 projects and then revisited the outcomes of 68 of them 4 years later to examine their efficacy and extent of sustainability. The projects included both privately and publicly funded efforts to improve crop yields while using resource-conserving tactics such as biological pest control; no-till methods to conserve soil carbon and moisture; and agroforestry, which incorporates trees into farmland. We wanted to know how far these projects can go when they work, Pretty says. Some of the projects left lasting impressions on Pretty. When he visited Honduras and Guatemala many years ago, he learned of the mucuna bean, also called the velvet bean, which was grown in Mesoamerica as part of maize farming practices for thousands of years. The old ways of growing the legume together with corn brought nitrogen to the soil and raised soil carbon levels, but these were largely abandoned when European colonists introduced monoculture cropping. Once farmers relearned the ancient polyculture techniques, Pretty saw corn yields jump. Today, he says, about 50,000 farmers in Central America use the method. The team found similarly sustainable practices in 57 countries. Of the projects with data on pesticide use, 77% had seen declines in pesticide use averaging 71%. At the same time, crop yields increased in those projects by more than 40%. How to feed the worlds growing population is, as Pretty puts it, a contentious issue. This century saw increases in crop production through the advent and application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides so impressive that they were dubbed the green revolution. And abandoning those methods raises fears among many that all of that seeming progress will be undone. The thinking had been that for development,

you had to sacrifice the environment, Pretty says. At best, plans tended to emphasize obvious environmental degradation from toxic chemical applications. But sustainable practices in developing countries could increase production, particularly in the poorest areas, and could also give the extra benefit of producing positive environmental goods, not just not doing harm, Pretty says. Those environmental goods include more water, more food, and potentially a more stable climate.
JUlES PRE T T Y

Sustainable agriculture practices used by farmers in developing regions, such as southwestern Cambodia, can increase yields by 71%, new research shows.

Coauthor John Dixon of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT, Mexico) underscores the stakes that drive him to search for sustainable ways to increase cereal production. The Yellow River stopped flowing in China in the 1990s because of pressure on water resources, he says. Growing population pressures will only repeat those demands in other parts of the world, he predicts. For the study, Dixon developed a classification system for farming methods that made comparisons possible. The hardest part, he says, was bridging the gap between formal knowledgequantifiable data, like crop yields and population sizeand so-called soft knowledge, such as the ways farmers form groups to manage water resources or the reliability of their access to markets. Though hard to measure, he says, these factors often make the difference between a projects success and failure. As for what the future holds, Dixon says, Im not one of those who thinks that it would be a very nice world if 80% of us are living in big cities. I would rather see a situation where rural people are also living well, which means having a sustainable piece of land, water, and a community with enough resources at its disposal. In the end, the researchers found that with sustainable practices, farmers increased their crop yields by an average of 64%. And this leads Pretty to ask: Couldnt we do more of this elsewhere? ERIKA ENGELHAUPT
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ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
Top paper: Engineering trick allows 3D vision
Magnitude and Directional Measures of Water and Cr(VI) Fluxes by Passive Flux Meter by Timothy J. Campbell, Kirk Hatfield, Harald Klammler, and Michael D. Annable, University of Florida; and P. S. C. Rao, Purdue University, 2006, 40 (20), 63926397. The first time Kirk Hatfield and his colleagues put their newest measuring device in the ground, they needed to do a little extra tinkering. When we first installed these things, we didnt know how to get them down a deep well, says the environmental engineer from the University of Florida. We stacked tables on chairs in a rickety configuration, he says with a rueful laugh, in order to get enough purchase to push the tubes down with a rod.
JAmES W. JAwIT Z

Mike Annable, Kirk Hatfield, and Suresh Rao (from top to bottom) attempted to jam a passive flux meter down a well while perched on a chair stacked on a table, in the early stages of their winning technologys development.

Slowly, the jerry-rigged fieldwork gave way to a more polished, low-energy passive flux meter for measuring fluctuations of contaminants in groundwater. It could soon be making surface water measurements too, according to Hatfield and his colleagues. A description of the devices measurements of chromium attenuation in an aquifer and in idealized sediment columns in the lab is described
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in their winning ES&T paper. Members of the research group struck on the idea after discussing with a graduate student defending his Ph.D. thesis how to measure variations in gasoline contaminant plumes. We have a fairly lively examination process, says Hatfield, which led to a series of one-on-one discussions about partitioning tracers. The new idea was to figure out how much of the gasoline is contaminating groundwater and moving with the groundwater. How fast is it moving? How far is it going to go in 10 years? And how can that be measured without much effort? Those sessions eventually gave rise to the idea of a cylindrical unit with a central tubular chamber surrounded by three equal-sized chambers. As water passes through the chambers, a sorbent captures the contaminant, giving an indication of the total amount of the material coming from a source. Only the center chamber is preloaded with a tracer, some of which is depleted as the contaminant is sorbed. The differences in the masses of adsorbed tracer and contaminant give a directional component to the flux. Possible applications for such a measuring device go beyond mapping the flow of contaminant plumes beneath gas stations. The flux meter can also record outflows from landfills and evaluate the success of remediation efforts. The team has placed a string of the devices parallel with the flow direction of a plume to get 3D information. In place sometimes for several months, the devices record cumulative flow over time without needing continuous electronic monitoring. In the past, we had to guess [at] hydraulic gradient and hydraulic conductivity to get flow rate, Hatfield says, and then take measurements near the source to model flux. Those measurements can be filled with lots of errors, he says. Weve been building up to this point, simultaneously measuring groundwater flux and direction since 1998, says his colleague Michael Annable. The technology recently entered the market, they say, after patenting and testing on U.S. military sites and elsewhere, from Australia to Brazil. The researchers are also working on refining the device for surface-water measurements. Details about that research will be published in an upcoming issue of ES&T (2007, doi 10.1021/es061883i). But, like any new metrology, the passive flux meter took some time to perfect. Annable recalls one of the first field implementations in Canada, several years ago. Someone forgot the socks these [tubes] are packed into, he says. (That was me, Hatfield chimes in.) We ended up running out to a clothing store and started looking for equivalent type materials, Annable adds. To fit the 5-ft-long, 2-in.-diameter tubes, the best thing out there is womens hosieryfishnet nylons, to be exact, he says. It worked perfectly. Hatfield also recalls having to buy vodka to get the ethanol that the team was using as a tracer at their University of Waterloo (Canada) research site. You have to be creative in the field, he says. NAOMI LUBICK

Runner-up: Microbial fuel cells 101

Microbial Fuel Cells: Methodology and Technology by Bruce Logan, Pennsylvania State University; Bert Hamelers, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Ren Rozendal, Wageningen University and Wetsus, Centre for Sustainable Water Technology, The Netherlands; Uwe Schrder, University of Greifswald, Germany; Jrg Keller and Stefano Freguia, The University of Queensland, Australia; and Peter Aelterman, Willy Verstraete, and Korneel Rabaey, Ghent University, Belgium, 2006, 40 (17), 51815192. The day after Korneel Rabaeys thesis defense and on the heels of a celebratory evening with a bit of Belgian beer and some French winea group of microbial fuel cell (MFC) researchers gathered for a brief meeting in Ghent, Belgium. The result was their winning ES&T paper, a review article intended as a guideline for the growing number of researchers interested in MFCs. The launch of the paper also coincided with the creation of a heavily accessed MFC website, notes Rabaey. People were asking worldwide: how do I build one, how do they work, what do I need to get started? Therefore, the group envisioned a nuts-and-bolts paper that would tell people about all the essential aspects of an MFC and, particularly, how to make one, says corresponding author Bruce Logan. He notes that coordinating a paper written by nine authors was tricky. The manuscript followed the sun around the globe, from Pennsylvania to Australia, to Europe, and back to Pennsylvania via email. At a basic level, an MFC works by converting biochemical energy into electrical energy. When bac-

teria digest sugar, protein, or other biodegradable organic matter, including bits of matter in wastewater, they produce electrons. In an MFC, electrons flow through a wire from an anode to a cathode, generating electricity. Given a little energy boost, MFCs can also yield hydrogen gas. MFCs have yet to find their way out of the lab, and they generate only small amounts of power. However, as technical barriers give way, wattage goes up. To evolve from a scientific curiosity into a practical technology, MFCs must be characterized in terms engineers can evaluate and appreciate, according to coauthor Willy Verstraete. This was a primary goal of the paper. A major question addressed at the meeting was: what are the best units to express the power generated by an MFC? I wouldnt say we reached consensus on everything, says Logan. But we at least appreciated that you had to do it more than one way, he adds. The group decided that it was reasonable to continue reporting power per areaof the anode, most oftenbecause that is how people had been doing it, but that reporting power per volume was equally, if not more, important. Although this nascent technology is not yet ready for prime time, Logan speculates that eventually MFCs will find multiple uses. The current goal is to scale up. Logan suspects that the first practical application will be using leftover organic matter in wastewater to help power sewage treatment. Both Verstraete and Logan stress the importance of attracting the interest of industry and investors, and Logan says that several companies are paying attention. BARBARA BOOTH

This composite shows several types of microbial fuel cells used for continuous operation. ES&T gives special thanks to the editorial advisory board subcommittee that helped narrow down the selection of top papers. The subcommittee included Alan Elzerman (chair), Jorge Gardea-Torresdey, Roger Prince, David Sedlak, and Jincai Zhao.
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