this comes off so crazy with what we now know/suspect
Bill Gates Wants to Create the Condom of the Future
By
Scott Christian
January 24, 2014
Next time you’re deep in the throws of passion, fumbling over that stupid condom wrapper, struggling in an all-out sprint against the clock to engage in bit of nerve-deadened, baby-free sex that rates only slightly better than dry humping through your jeans, just stop for a second and think about Bill Gates.
Or, you know, maybe wait until after you’re done.
Either way, you should definitely give ol’ Bill some consideration, because he might just be the man to make sure that scenario never happens again. On Wednesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would be giving out $1 million in grants for someone to create a better condom. The hope is that by creating the condom of the future—one that eliminates inconvenience and, most importantly, loss of pleasure—men around the world will be more likely to use one, thus sparing women of the disproportionate burden of HIV infections and unplanned pregnancies.
Of course, the Gates Foundation isn’t getting into the condom racket solely to improve your sexy time. Well, they are, but the long-range goal is actually to use better condoms to help fight global poverty. Most economists agree that there is a
direct correlation between impoverished countries and high birth rates, and the thinking is that, by creating a more pleasurable condom, men in those countries will be more likely to embrace male contraception. As Dr. Papa Salif Sow, a senior program officer on the HIV team at the Gates Foundation, said, "The common analogy is that wearing a condom is like taking a shower with a raincoat on. A redesigned condom that overcomes inconvenience, fumbling, or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty."
Many of the scientists who have received money from the grant are looking at materials beyond latex in order to solve the sensitivity problem. At the University of Oregon, scientists are developing an ultra-thin condom made out of a polyurethane polymer with "shape memory properties." Another scientist from the University of Tennessee believes that thermoplastic elastomers are the answer.
But the most interesting, and potentially weird, material being explored is an animal tendon—specifically, collagen fibrils from cow tendons.
As Mark McGlothlin, from Apex Medical Technologies told the
New Republic, "the texture of collagen is very much like the mucous membrane: The feel of it, the heat transfer of it, and to the touch, it feels very much like skin." And creating something that serves as a second skin is basically the holy grail of this whole enterprise.
So, space-aged polymers or cow tendons, one way or another, we men just might someday have a condom that doesn’t kill all of the sensation during sex. And all thanks to Bill Gates. Let’s just hope that whatever these mad scientists come up with, it does better than Zune.