No, not the penis, the condom for the penis. News from the Brisbane (AU) Times, in yesterday’s story “‘Like you’re touching someone covered in a lubricant’: next generation condoms”, about hydrogel condoms, by Bridie Smith:
Researchers are using brain scanning technology to test the “pleasure” attributes of the next generation of condoms.
While latex condoms have remained largely unchanged for almost a century, researchers say the new hydrogel material will have properties similar to human skin.
Thinner and stronger, the hydrogel is made with water and held together by molecular chains called polymers. [The chemistry is murky here; a latex is also a suspension of polymer particles in an aqueous medium.]
It’s really unusual to touch,” said Swinburne University cognitive neuroscientist Joseph Ciorciari. “It feels like real human tissue, like when you’re touching someone but they’re covered in a lubricant.”
Developed by materials scientists at Wollongong University, the hydrogel material has been tested for its “pleasure” attributes in Melbourne.
I wonder about smell and taste. Latex condoms have a smell and taste that many people find unpleasant, and flavoring the condoms (or lubes) only makes things worse: who wants the smell or taste of artificial wild cherry?
(Hat tip to Michael Carden.)
December 11, 2015 at 2:58 am |
The bad news is that hydrogel condoms are not yet commercially available. They’re still being tested.