Two Materials

The first material I researched is Gutta percha.  Upon first review of this material it turned out to be a genus of tropical trees from Southeast Asia.  Its sap is a natural latex which hardens itself once dried out enough but remains unbrittle. The sap was once used to insulate telephone wires, even in the U.S until better insulators were discovered.

Also Gutta percha is used in root canals as a filler because it is an inert substance and wont change or react with anything.

The next material I decided to research is Palladium. While it was not in the timeline in the text it was discovered along with Platinum because they are typically mined together and separated in the smelting process.  Palladium is a very underrated and little known metal, but its uses are vast and important. It is used as a conductor in computer chips, a catalyst in many reactions such as the Wacker Process, and its used in the catalytic converter.

Government Programs

I do not know much about the government or government agencies, particularly because it does not interest me.  Now I could sit here and make funny jokes like we should get rid of all Healthcare because its making people live longer, and therefore facilitating our populations rocket climb towards its carrying capacity, but to seriously attempt to answer this question, in my personal opinion, I would have to say the government should decrease funding towards military departments. Cutting this program entirely would be stupid, for our safety as a country, but in my little knowledge about what is currently going on it seems like the money could be spent more efficiently. 
One area the government funds that could be bother maintained and expanded is the protection of wildlife areas, in particular the flora in those areas. I feel like plants are often overlooked when it comes to conservancy, but are much more important to our planet than something like the Bald Eagle or the American Alligator, which have been helped extensively.  If those tertiary fauna were lost something would come in to replace them, not perfectly but it would work(interspecific competition would indeed change), but if you take out the bottom (flora) it would topple like a pigs fortress in Angry Birds. This is just something that interests me and I would like to see our government do more to help.