Saw a fast link article on google news about new thin film matrial for ultracapacitors on Technology Review [1].
Why is this future now?
Until recently, chemical batteries are the only practical way to store energy. So if some device today was unearthed/found decades latter, the battery would not work, maybe if it was able to run totally off a solar cell it could. However ultracapacitors may be able to hold a charge for decades, or at least be able to recharge decades later from solar cells. So it is the stuff of science fiction from the last century. A material that can be used to make devices with electrical storage that will years later work, whereas if it was a convential batter that would not be so!
Interesting Understanding:
More links about thin film carbon ultracapacitors [3]:
Links
[1] http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/25170/?a=f
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery
[3] http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=thin+film+carbon+ultracapacitors&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
[4] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TH1-4JMVHRP-3&_user=10&_coverDate=06/19/2006&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1310019722&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b4ddd1d2ac31d852277d64249871eeb1
[5] http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl802558y
[6] http://www.worldandi.com/subscribers/feature_detail.asp?num=23938