Researchers at the University of Queensland have made a cool new discovery in the quest for better condoms . It plow out a ingredient of spinifex , a coastal locoweed , could make safe much , much thinner . Thinner is safe .
Spinifex is unwashed in Australia and the Middle East . Its hardy bushes keep moxie dunes in place , stabilizing coastline . Its tough rosin once aid aboriginal Australians deposit the spear heads to their shaft . And now its fibers are going to help reduce the thickness of condoms . harmonize to the Queensland researcher , adding the nanocellulose bring forth by spinifex to condoms will allow them to be made thin than ever .
The process starts by harvesting the pasturage and pulping it , tote up a little lye to avail snap off it down . Once the grass is pulp , it ’s forced through a tiny first step . This rips the flagrant pulp fibers away , leaving behind nanocellulose . The substance is water - soluble so it can be impart to latex without any problem .
Once it ’s in latex , nanocellulose toughens the material . The resulting safety can withstand up to 20 pct more press and can expand 40 pct more than veritable condoms . Since regular prophylactic already meet safety standards , the researcher are n’t interested in making them tougher , so much as reach them just as toughened — but thinner . Their first effort at manufacture the safety leave in rubbers 45 micron thick . Average condoms tend to hover between60 and 70 microns , although “ ultra - thin ” ace can get down to just20 microns .
The Queensland team wants to protect your health in other ways as well . There ’s talk of making thin surgical gloves , which allow doctors to perform more sensitive functioning with less digit fatigue . But their major direction mighty now is more crotch than helping hand . presently , club might be feel the benefit in multiple ways . The researchers trust that this will make condom use during sex activity more desirable — and pass to lower rates of HIV and other STDs around the world .
[ The University of Queensland ]
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