Color-changing condoms
Three teenagers from the Isaac Newton Academy in East London have invented a condom that detects sexually transmitted diseases by glowing and changing its color. The boys who designed the innovative condom are Muaz Nawaz, 13, Daanyaal Ali and Chirag Shah, both 14.
The boys called their invention STEYE and jokingly refer to it as a “penetrating design”. According to them, the condoms can detect the most common cases of STDs by using a special layer of built-in molecules that glow in the dark when sensing sexually-transmitted infections like herpes, genital warts and Chlamydia.
The teenagers won first prize at the TeenTech competition and the judges who decided to award them said they were very impressed with the boys’ courage to tackle such a taboo subject and their enthusiasm to learn from tech experts and improve their knowledge on the subject.
When asked how they feel about winning first prize with their condoms that detect STDs by changing their color, the teenagers said that they have learned many things about technology and science and the award they received inspired them to do further research and improve their product. They commented that after designing the STEYE condoms, the next step would be to start developing a prototype.
One of the young inventors, Ali, explained that the reason behind their invention was to come up with a solution that would help people detect STDs in a safer and less scary way. He added that a lot of people are ashamed to go to the doctors to see if they have a sexually transmitted disease. With this condom, people will find out whether they are clean of STDs or not in the privacy of their own bedroom. The teenage scientists said that the condoms they designed will “help future of the next generation”.
Dr. Christian Jessen, one of the scientists who awarded the boys for their invention, said that he chose to give them the first prize because he was both surprised and pleased to know that there are young people who are concerned and do not shy away from such serious issues, such as sexual transmitted infections.
Image Source: mentalfloss
