
Bill Gates funds creation of graphene condoms - robabbott
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/171417-bill-gates-funds-creation-of-thin-light-impenetrable-graphene-condoms
======
ChuckMcM
I must admit I didn't see that one coming. It suggests a fascinating
application, which is to wear a graphene condom, on top of a rubber condom, on
top of a graphene condom. Thus creating a condom 'super capacitor' [1] that
you would charge up by rubbing it, which could then power a piezo electric
vibrator. I'm so waiting to see who patents that!

[1] [http://www.extremetech.com/computing/163071-graphene-
superca...](http://www.extremetech.com/computing/163071-graphene-
supercapacitors-created-with-traditional-paper-making-process-rivals-lead-
acid-battery-capacity)

~~~
robabbott
Or, alternatively, recharge your smartphone during sex.

~~~
SilkRoadie
Not sure how much of a charge you would generate in 2 minutes.

Couldn't this be used in trousers? The friction generated between the legs
could wirelessly charge whatever is in your pocket?

~~~
dTal
...2 minutes?

~~~
hellweaver666
and that includes the time it takes to eat the pizza.

------
akiselev
The possibilities of graphene are vast and many and exciting but this is kind
of scary. For all intents and purposes, graphene is nanotechnology and in
certain forms can act like asbestos and has a lot of other unknown behaviors
in the body [1]. Unfortunately the field of nanotoxicology hasn't really
organized itself and caught up to the widespread use of nanocoating and other
material science in industry[2]. I hope they find ways to make it extremely
inert in the human body but there's much work to be done.

[1]
[http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v3/n7/full/nnano.2008.11...](http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v3/n7/full/nnano.2008.111.html)
(CNTs are rolled up graphene and are formed in many graphene production
methods as a byproduct)

[2] Nature has a whole series on this:
[http://www.nature.com/nnano/focus/nanotoxicology/index.html](http://www.nature.com/nnano/focus/nanotoxicology/index.html)

~~~
moocowduckquack
Graphene flakes and carbon nanotubes are already relatively common in the
environment as they are naturally occurring. You get carbon nanotubes in
ordinary soot, for instance.

~~~
adrianN
Yes, and ordinary soot is not something you want to have regular contact with.

~~~
moocowduckquack
I thought it was lucky. Besides, it has been used in cosmetics for millennia.

~~~
DanBC
Breathing ordinary soot is sub-optimal.

~~~
moocowduckquack
The set of things that are sub optimal to breathe is pretty wide ranging
though. I agree that breathing soot is not great, but I don't think this is
particularly because it contains CNTs, as much as because it is a fine
particulate that can get into and block up alveoli. I can't think of any fine
particulates off the top of my head that are particularly good to breathe in.

------
jlgreco
Fun graphene fact: As the article mentions, graphene was first isolated at the
University of Manchester using sticky tape. For this discovery, Andre Geim and
Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics... making Andre
Geim the first person to be awarded both the Nobel Prize and the _Ig_ Nobel
Prize. He was previously awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for magnetically
levitating a live frog.

~~~
tokenizer
So which accomplishment do you find more rewarding? While I see graphene
becoming an extremely popular 21st century material, levitating a frog is the
first step to levitating anything larger.

~~~
redacted
The frog was levitated using diamagnetic levitation which is pretty much
useless for anything in the real-world (hence the ig Nobel, not Nobel).

The magnetic field used was stronger than the confinement field in ITER - so
stronger magnets than you need for nuclear fusion.

We can already levitate much larger things, such as trains.

~~~
tokenizer
Thanks. Good point on the trains, completely missed that.

I guess levitating a live frog seems more interesting to me however. To be
able to use magnetics to simulate gravity for humans safely, is IMO, a huge
barrier (of many) to space travel/living one day.

~~~
jlgreco
My understanding is that they do use such magnets for microgravity
experiments. Here is a cool video on diamagnetic levitation from the
University of Nottingham:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nod54HFkH0o](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nod54HFkH0o)

------
XorNot
This is a good idea which won't solve the underlying problems with poor condom
usage in places which really need it (Africa).

That's being powered by deliberate misinformation campaigns and cultural
leftovers, not the specific properties of condoms (though improving them is
always a good idea).

~~~
nl
In some cases "underlying" problems (eg misinformation campaigns and cultural
leftovers) are really just used as excuses by men who don't like how condoms
feel. Fix that, and many will be happy to ignore those thing.

As an aside: don't forget the largest major anti-condom propagandists is not
African at all (ie, the Catholic church).

~~~
pauljburke
>As an aside: don't forget the largest major anti-condom propagandists is not
African at all (ie, the Catholic church).

That would be the curch that also goes on about abstinence before marriage and
monogamy afterwards? Never understood why the church gets beaten up for that
(not a fan of the stance on condom use but this implies people "religously"
follow one of their rules while blatantly ignoring others).

~~~
Sharlin
The difference is that you can't really convince people to practice abstinence
and monogamy. You can quite easily convince people to not use condoms. Failing
to take this into account when you are in a position of authority is unethical
at best. Spreading misinformation such as HIV being able to get through
condoms is plain old evil.

~~~
fakeanon
If you abstain you have no chance of getting pregnant. It depends:
[http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3167/do-
condoms-...](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3167/do-condoms-have-
large-enough-holes-for-hiv-to-pass-through) .

------
baby
I'm very glad to live in this era. I can imagine a few years from now young
people will be talking about how back then they used very thick condoms that
suppressed all pleasure and people still fucked using them.

------
wozniacki
I have always wanted to know.

What does Bill Gates want for the world?

He's in India helping Polio efforts [1] and helping distribute mosquito nets
in Africa. [2]

What does his philanthropic soul want, in the end and in the larger scheme of
things?

Has he ever expressed this or laid out?

There wasn't much in his AMA on Reddit a while ago. [3]

[1]
[http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230330950...](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579181753580988412)

[2] [http://www.kplu.org/post/bill-gates-vs-mosquitoes-whos-
winni...](http://www.kplu.org/post/bill-gates-vs-mosquitoes-whos-winning)

[3]
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18bhme/im_bill_gates_c...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18bhme/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/)

~~~
c3o
"Here’s My Plan to Improve Our World — And How You Can Help" from 10 days ago:
[http://www.wired.com/business/2013/11/bill-gates-wired-
essay...](http://www.wired.com/business/2013/11/bill-gates-wired-essay/all/)

"We take a double-pronged approach: (1) Narrow the gap so that advances for
the rich world reach the poor world faster, and (2) turn more of the world’s
IQ toward devising solutions to problems that only people in the poor world
face."

------
ISL
A material as strong as graphene may have curious abrasive properties.

~~~
colanderman
Doesn't graphite (a close relative of graphene) have lubricative properties?

~~~
wmeredith
Yep. We had graphite gel and spray for our pinewood derby axles in Boy Scouts.

~~~
Wingman4l7
Same here -- graphite lubricant was the standard stuff.

------
jw_
Hopefully the packaging is slightly different than what is pictured. :)

~~~
foobarian
Or not. The depicted condom would provide quite effective contraception for
more reasons than just the material strength.

~~~
kazagistar
The whole point of the article is that encouraging condom use is better then
discouraging it.

------
bruceb
Maybe fund a small chip in your boxers that emits the loud cry of a baby when
you take them off.

------
obtino
It's not the material that's the problem in many places, but the cost. There
are reports of people using post-exposure prophylaxis drugs over condoms
because they're cheaper!

More info:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24942903](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24942903)

~~~
miga
Only in places that allow use of cheap generic post-exposure drugs produced in
India. Unfortunately the very same drugs in Europe are hell expensive. They
should be probably subsidized by the country like Germany which is famous for
its sex industry.

------
gexla
So, back in the day we would have said "bring your rubbers." I suppose once
this condom hits the market we will say something like "make sure to bring the
lead for your pencil." Actually, do people ever refer to the graphite in
pencils as lead anymore? We did when I was a kid.

The condom is something in bad need of a radical overhaul and it would have a
huge effect. At least, if this could deal with the sensation component of the
problem, then it would get more people to use them.

Still problems would be distribution (religious blocking and availability for
the poor are issues here), education (family planning so people know the full
financial effects of having lots of kids) and "killing the moment" when you
stop to put the thing on.

At 100K per competing group, it seems like the foundation could be getting
lots of "bang" for its buck here.

------
TIJ
Considering that most people don't wear condoms because they they think its
coming in their way its a good idea to fund something that will encourage
people to use condoms in developing nations such as africa and asia. Gates
doing good job KUDOS. Now i only expect him to interviene into ms's anti-
google missions and put a hold on that shitty business. Those are some cheap
publicity stunts from ms while google is busy making cool products and amaze
people[[http://thenextweb.com/google/2013/11/21/google-building-
chro...](http://thenextweb.com/google/2013/11/21/google-building-chrome-app-
based-development-environment-using-dart-polymer)].

------
randartie
The donation was 100 grand to 11 different teams. That's about 1 engineer per
company for 1 year (if that?), is that really enough to do this? There's first
the invention of this thing, then there's manufacturing process, etc.

~~~
illumen
Plus PR, and global debate. The mass debate has to be worth 10x that much to
the cause.

------
chickenboot
I preferred the Guardian[1] piece on this, for it's lack of real content
(who's heard of graphene?) and very entertaining comments.

[1]
[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/21/graphen...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/21/graphene-
condom-safe-sex-bill-gates)

------
shirro
I can imagine the tech support calls. "Have you tied taking it off and on
again?"

------
dnautics
so, just to be clear, is this still vaporware, a prototype condom has not been
made yet?

~~~
robabbott
The grant has just been made. I think it will be a couple of years before this
becomes real.

------
JulianMorrison
Finally, science has the answer to "man of steel, woman of kleenex"[1].

[1][http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html](http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html)

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Ellipsis753
Am I the only one that finds "impenetrable" a funny selling point? It makes
perfect sense but still sounds funny. I'm surprised they didn't go for
"unbreakable".

------
Gravityloss
I posted the same idea 244 days ago but was downvoted.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5432569](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5432569)

------
VladRussian2
just by association with inpenetrable, armor-piercing bullets, etc...

[http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW118285.html](http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW118285.html)

"UOW researchers have used graphene to develop a new composite material which
can produce the toughest fibres to date- even tougher than spider silk and
Kevlar!"

~~~
robabbott
there's an advertisement in there somewhere...

------
miga
Let's hope they will also be 100x stronger than current ones, so they never
break.

~~~
kijin
Just wait until somebody staples them to a sex-ed pamphlets and hands them out
on a college campus.

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iagooar
Can we consider using "impenetrable condoms" as an intended pun?

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darins33
I swear. He better call it Steel Gates

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mumbi
that'll make some money.

~~~
robabbott
Every propellerhead on the planet will buy some just because.

~~~
enneff
Weird comment. I, like most people, will likely buy hundreds with which to
fuck people.

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jstalin
Micro... hard?

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sigzero
But...don't you want penetration? wah wah wah

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bonemachine
Gives the expression "Billware" a whole new meaning!

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henpa
At the end of the article: "Now read: Do humans dream of android prostitutes?"

Is that Google's answer to Microsoft's condoms? ;-)

