Iran's Concrete Innovation

Wired:

Civil engineers in Iran have two major problems that their building materials need to be able to deal with. The first is earthquakes. The other is bombs.
As a result, the country has developed a particular expertise in making some of the toughest concrete in the world. The pinnacle of its development is known as Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC), which contains powdered quartz, but the country's researchers are also working on integrating other types of fibres and nanoparticles to toughen the substance yet further.
Concrete is traditionally made from cement, sand, gravel and water. When the water reacts with the cement, the other ingredients are bonded together in a structure that -- once set -- has high compressive strength, but relatively low tensile strength. As a result, concrete is often reinforced with other materials like steel.
Iran's concrete chefs have experimented widely with adding extra ingredients (known as admixtures) to that mix to improve the substance's load-bearing abilities. UHPC includes pure powered quartz and a selection of reinforcing metals and fibres to create a material that can withstand pressure many times higher than normal concrete, while also being more flexible and durable. That means that structures built with it can be thinner and lighter, while still being able to cope with the same stresses.

I didn't realize Iran was a world leader in high strength concrete.  I guess if you are figuring you might get bombed, development of better concrete helps out a bunch.