The Glass Age (parts 1 & 2)

Yeah, it's a shill for Corning, but I'm okay with that because corning makes some pretty frickin' cool materials, and the Mythbusters guys - Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman - are pretty solidly entertaining.

We get some history of glass developments, a look at modern developments in Corning glass (optical fiber, willow glass - check 7:00 for the phenomenally flexible willow glass), and then...well, an end.

Luckily there is also The Glass Age (part 2) from the same folks. Here we get a few destructive tests with older cell phones, an explanation of Prince Rupert's drops, and a windshield glass explanation.