Bill Gates Talks About Contraceptive Technology

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has announced that progress is being made in the development of ‘next-generation’ condoms. In 2013 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation solicited applications for a number of $100,000 start-up grants with an eye toward developing ultra-thin, skin-like condoms that would help control the world’s population, while offering greater sexual pleasure. The endeavours will be financed by “first-world investors”, but are part of an initiative sponsored by the Foundation to improve the lives of the poorest residents of the planet.

Microsoft founder and billionaire, Bill Gates, announced Tuesday that there are exciting developments in condom technology.

Gates said of the project during a Q&A session in New Delhi on Tuesday, “there are some technological materials that will be able to maintain a (condom) barrier with a very thin, thin material”.

Though the thought of wearing a condom sponsored by the same great mind behind the Window’s operating system and it’s infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ may worry some people (let’s hope they don’t have the same failure rate), the new condom designs are being pursued by some of the world’s greatest minds, and some of the leading development’s are actually quite ingenious!

• An innovative hydrogel is being championed by researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

• The University of Manchester is researching the possibility of using a super-light conductive material called graphene.

• The University of Oregon has proposed a polyurethane condom that would be less than half the thickness of the thinnest condoms available now.

Melinda Gates announced the development of a lozenge-like contraceptive method.

Melinda Gates also commented during the Q&A session Tuesday that the Foundation is investing in the development of a lozenge-like contraceptive tablet that could be placed in the vagina, and expressed her hopes that this new idea “could put family planning in the hands of women”.