Researchers plan to retrofit a school building in quake-prone Uttarakhand with a novel concrete coating that can dramatically enhance the earthquake resistance of seismically vulnerable structures.
The fibre-reinforced concrete was developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada.
The material is engineered at the molecular scale to be strong, malleable, and ductile.
Researchers subjected the material, called eco-friendly ductile cementitious composite (EDCC), to earthquake simulation tests.
The material will be used to retrofit a school in Roorkee in Uttarakhand, a highly seismic area, researchers said.
EDCC combines cement with polymer-based fibres, fly ash and other industrial additives.

China plans to build a $1 billion super-sized DNA sequencing platform in the Jiangsu Province aimed at storing genetic information of millions of its ethnic Chinese population/
The DNA project is part of the National Health & Medicine Big Data (Nanjing) Centre, a six-billion yuan (about $ one billion) project, Lan Qing, Deputy Director of the provincial Health and Family Planning Commission said.
During the first phase, health and medical information on about 80 million people, the equivalent of the population in Jiangsu, will be stored at the centre. The designed capacity for DNA sequencing will be up to 400,000 to 500,000 samples per year.
The DNA sequencing project will be jointly undertaken by the state-owned Yangzi Group, Southeast University and Nanjing Medical University.
Researchers will then use big data created in the database to study genetic mutations related to major diseases, look for the impact of interaction between genes and environmental concerns on human heath, and provide statistical support for diagnosis and treatment of major diseases.
The programme will focus on population genetics, newborns, childhood brain and cognitive development, cancer, and rare and chronic diseases.
The database is expected to be complete in around four years.

Scientists have identified the date of the oldest recorded solar eclipse - an event that occurred on October 30 in 1207 B.C. Using a combination of material from the Bible and an ancient Egyptian text, researchers were able to refine their understanding of when the Egyptian pharaohs ruled, in particular the reign of Ramesses the Great. Lines from the Old Testament book of Joshua state that after Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan - a region that covered modern-day Israel and Palestine - he prayed: “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.” Modern English translations, which follow the King James translation of 1611, usually interpret this text to mean that the sun and the moon stopped moving. Going back to the original Hebrew text, we determined that an alternative meaning could be that the sun and moon just stopped doing what they normally do: they stopped shining. In this context, the Hebrew words could be referring to a solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, and the sun appears to stop shining. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the Hebrew word translated ‘stand still’ has the same root as a Babylonian word used in ancient astronomical texts to describe eclipses. Independent evidence that the Israelites were in Canaan between 1500 and 1050 B.C. can be found in the Merneptah Stele, an Egyptian text dating from the reign of the Pharaoh Merneptah, son of the Ramesses the Great. The large granite block, held in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, says that it was carved in the fifth year of Merneptah’s reign and mentions a campaign in Canaan in which he defeated the people of Israel.

Scientists have identified a potential seventh taste - a sensitivity towards carbohydrates - which may be behind the craving for starchy foods such as bread, pasta and rice. Researchers from Australia have shown that sensitivity to carbohydrates, which they call the seventh taste, increases intake of starchy food and a larger waistline. The team had previously named fat as the "sixth taste". The fat taste studies explored the tongue's ability to detect fat as a distinct taste similar to people's ability to sense sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami - the five traditional or classic tastes. The research looked at two carbohydrates, maltodextrin and oligofructose, both found in common foods like bread, pasta and rice. The study later analysed preferences of 34 adults and found significant correlations between how sensitive someone was to carbohydrates, their dietary intake and their waist measurement. Those who were most sensitive to the carbohydrate taste ate more of these foods and had a larger waist. This line of taste research was important because the increasing problem of diet-related chronic illnesses, such as obesity, required a greater understanding of the drivers of the food we consume. Increased energy intake, in particular greater intakes of energy-dense foods, is thought to be one of the major contributors to the global rise of obesity. Interestingly, what we found in the fat taste studies was that the people who were more sensitive to fat consumed less fatty foods, but it is the other way around for carbohydrates. The individuals who are more sensitive to the 'taste' of carbohydrate also have some form of subconscious accelerator that increases carbohydrate or starchy food consumption.