It turns out Australia is pretty grand at shaking up the condom game.
In 2014, a ‘Strayan biotech firm cooked up a lube-friendly anti-viral compound they claimed could nuke HIV, Herpes and other sexually-transmitted nasties; last year, a team from the University of Wollongong were (well) endowed with US $100K from the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation to crack on with research on revolutionary ‘hydrogel’ condoms.
Now, in the grandest pairing of traditional Australian know-how and cutting edge research ever conceived, the University of Queensland have teamed up with Indigenous rangers to stop people conceiving.
According to the ABC, the spinifex plant endemic out bush near QLD-NT border is a primo ingredient for top-notch frangas, and the Uni has partnered with remote communities to harvest the spindly plant for research purposes.
The project is performing double-duties too, with Indigenous rangers acquiring training during the process.
Professor Darren Martin said that when the hardy grass is broken down to its smallest individual components, the resulting ‘nanofibres’ can be blended with latex to create condoms that are supposedly up to 20% stronger and resistant to bursting.
Martin said “they’re actually soft and flexible and tough,” which is all anybody ever really asks from a rubber, and the pilot scheme is looking to harvest 5kg of the plant daily – enough, Martin says, to strengthen every condom on the market.
If all goes well, he says the spinifex-infused condoms could crack onto the market within three years, and that’s just bloody brilliant.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Todd Korol / Getty.
Photo: Todd Korol / Getty.
