For all of human history, the eras have been defined by the most important materials used as tools and building materials. The human race has progressed from the Stone Age to the Bronze, Iron, and Steel Ages. We are currently in what is widely regarded as the Information Age. With the invention of the Internet, cell phones, television, phone, and radio, information can be sent and be used by anyone in the world to anyone else almost instantaneously. Even today’s materials are not as static as their historical counterparts. There are materials today that are able to change their properties based on their surrounding environment and when materials are made on the nanoscale they cease to follow normal rules of physics and instead follow quantum physics. Their properties are unpredictable because nanoparticles are in somewhat of an exotic state.
Today we were introduced to many new materials that could potentially revolutionize our world. Dr. Yang Yang showed us new plastic polymers that can be used as solar cells. These plastic polymers are only 50% as efficient as current silicon solar cells, but their price, hundreds or thousands time cheaper. One of the main setbacks of current solar technology is its price and these extremely cheap solar cells can bring solar technology to practically anyone.
Also there are new materials called sol-gels (sol for solution and gel for material). These sol-gels can make amazing thing based on the conditions in which they are made. Even glass can be made at this way, and even at room temperature, a thousand degrees cooler than conventional methods.
Under different conditions, aerogel can be made. due to the amount of air in it, more than 96% air, it has incredible heat-resistant properties. It is even being used in the Space Shuttles for insulation.
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/aerogel-insulation.html
http://photo2.si.edu/infoage/infoage.html
http://debatecoaches.org/wp-content/ev/08-09/high-energy-prices-plastic.doc (page 33)
http://www.chemat.com/html/solgel.html
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~ianb/history/