Gates Foundation funds 'ultra-thin' condom studies in bid to raise uptake
Bill Gates funds research on ultra-thin sheaths in hope that increasing pleasure will increase use
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said progress was being made on developing a "next-generation" ultra-thin, skin-like condom that could offer better sexual pleasure, help population control and be financed by first-world investors.
Last year, the Microsoft co-founder offered inventors US$100,000 in start-up grants to develop a "next generation" of super-sheath condoms through the charitable Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It looks like "there are some technological materials that will be able to maintain a [condom] barrier with a very thin, thin layer", Gates said on Thursday in New Delhi.
His foundation has given one grant of US$100,000 to the University of Manchester in the UK to research a condom using a super-light conducive material known as graphene.
Another US$100,000 grant has gone to the University of Oregon in the US for a proposal to create a polyurethane condom that would create a seal around the penis and be less than half the thickness of the best condoms available now.
Scientists say they want to achieve a super-strength thin membrane for a condom to achieve a "barely there" feel.