Much stronger and lighter than steel, and able to conduct electricity, these cylinders of pure carbon have been called a wonder material, a new building block that might be used in everything from electronics to airplanes.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/02.html

Also saw the next segment about Tom Sever who is the only archeologist on the NASA payroll and who is using the space agency's aircraft and satellites to survey ancient sites on the ground. It's a technology called "remote sensing," and it can reveal hidden details in the landscape below. From space, satellites record invisible wavelengths like infrared. What we perceive as heat, satellite cameras turn into light.

 

TOM SEVER: It can see beyond the range of our vision. It can detect features that we can't see. And through the use of computers, we can record that invisible information and bring it back into visible light.

PETER STANDRING: Using remote sensing, Sever proved the Maya used innovative agriculture on land poorly suited to grow crops. Satellite photography peered through layers of the modern rainforest to reveal intense cultivation, connected by a pattern of ancient roadways.

TOM SEVER: From the perspective of space, we can look down, and we can see how the Maya were able to feed this intense population. We could see the Maya roadways, causeways. We could find their water reservoirs, water storage areas and canal systems.

PETER STANDRING: The images charted areas right next to Bill Saturno's excavation at San Bartolo. And when Tom Sever sent satellite maps to help his colleague, Saturno immediately noticed one very curious detail in the satellite imagery.

WILLIAM SATURNO: In looking at the satellite image, it immediately became clear to me that the forest in San Bartolo was of a lighter color than the forest outside of San Bartolo. And so, in looking farther afield, looking across that image, you could see other areas that shared that same color. And, of course, the thought is, "Well I wonder if those are archaeological sites too."

PETER STANDRING: So with a GPS locator in his hand, Saturno plotted a course to the other brightly colored spots on his NASA map, scattered all over the landscape.

WILLIAM SATURNO: And as you get closer to them, you're saying to yourself, "In 10 meters, we should be walking into an archaeological site. Now, if this works, we have five meters to go until we find architecture. And then you walk that five meters and sure enough, you walk up onto a Mayan building.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/03.html