A flexible fabric that turns into industrial-strength concrete when water is applied has been shortlisted for this year's MacRobert technology prize. Created by a small Cardiff-based firm (United Kingdom) of the same name, Concrete Canvas achieves 80% of its strength within 24 hours of applying water and is said to be impossible to over-saturate. The product has been used in major construction projects in extreme environments, such as diverting glacier melt water around a copper mine in the Atacama Desert, Chile, wrapping a pipeline at the bottom of the Red Sea and protecting a slope to prevent dangerous erosion next to a busy railway line in Spain.