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Students Win Prize For Color-Changing Condoms That Detect STDs
New submitter PJ6 writes: Three students attending the Isaac Newton Academy in the UK won the Healthcare Category of the Teen Tech Awards, for their idea to use antibodies to create color-changing condoms to recognize STDs. They say the material, which is still in the concept stage, will turn green for chlamydia, yellow for herpes, purple for HPV, and blue for syphilis. The BBC reports: "The boys said they still have to test the science and feasibility of their idea. They want to work with a university on the science and say they've already been contacted by a condom company which is interested in working with them on developing the concept further."
How about just a small sample bit of test material that is packaged with the condom?
As it stands you'd have to dip it in before you got the feedback. I'd prefer the feedback up front, I would think.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
Just to be clear, they haven't invented jack shit. It's just a "concept". These three kids made a presentation of "Wouldn't it be great if..." and won a prize. It isn't science, it's creative writing.
It's a bit of an odd prize, because all they did was suggest an idea. No working prototype or anything like that, just "wouldn't it be good if..."
In fact the idea might be a bit half-bakes because by the time the antibodies have reacted (and BTW how do you keep them alive for months or even years in the packet?) the condom will probably have been discarded. It's also rather anti-social and possibly illegal to perform medical tests on someone without their consent, which seems to be the point of this thing otherwise why not just provide a more traditional testing kit.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
"This material, which is still in the concept stage..."
That's ridiculous. How is this different than sitting around bullshitting with your friends about how cool it would be to have flying cars? "Wouldn't it be cool if you had a condom that changed color when an std was present?"
And hey, look at that, they've already picked the colors!
This is absurd for so many reasons.
1) as most people familiar with condoms would recognize, when a condom's in full use it's quite frequently dark and/or not exactly exposed to where you can see it.
2) I'm not really interested in using my dong as the dipstick, no matter what it's sheathed in. I'd really rather know the STD status *before* the dick goes in
3) considering the really rather astonishing materials science behind the construction of condoms, it's not like one can easily mix in additives - anything that's going to be part of the latex but isn't directly contributing to strength is going to be a weakness. And what are its ongoing effects on the latex over the long shelf-life and sometimes difficult storage conditions (ie wallet for far too long)? You going to use such a condom if the failure rate is 2x-3x that of normal condoms?
4) the "magic" substance that changes colors in the presence of an STD has YET TO BE INVENTED.
Christ.
-Styopa
If only I had sent in my concept of a condom that miraculously kills all those diseases and also HIV, cancer and the common cold, I would have won.
There is nothing useful or nerdy here.
Neither the product nor any of it's features are currently possible.
There is no invention, no science, no ingenuity here, just an idea.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, it's being able to implement those ideas that matters.
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