Teenagers Made This Condom That Glows In The Dark If You Have An STI

Safe sex is more than half the battle when it comes to preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

And now, a group of teenagers from the Isaac Newton Academy in London have taken it a step further; they've created a condom that changes colors when it detects certain STIs.

The students, including 13- and 14-year-old inventors Musaz Nawaz, Cirag Shah and Daanyaal Ali, came up with their idea based off a reddit thread discussion and the need for effective sex education--calling their invention the S.T.EYE.

"We wanted to create something that makes detecting harmful STIs safer than ever before, so that people can take immediate action in the privacy of their own homes without the invasive procedures at the doctor's," Ali told the Daily Mail. "We've made sure we're able to give peace of mind to users and make sure people can be even more responsible than ever before."

The condom works with the help of infused molecules that luminesce in low light when they become attached to bacteria and known viruses from STIs like syphilis and chlamydia.

Certain colors mean different diseases or infection, with green for chlamydia, purple for the human papillomavirus (HPV), yellow for herpes, and blue for syphiis.

The idea won top honors (and $1,500) for the Health Category of the TeenTech awards this year, an annual that motivates 11 to 16 year olds to realize "their true potential and the real opportunities available in the contemporary STEM workplace," according to The Washington Post.

However, it may be awhile before we're seeing these condoms in stores.

For instance, does the contraceptive detect potential STIs between both the partner and the user? And if so, how? Furthermore, if someone has more than one STI, will the condom show multiple colors, Daily Dot's EJ Dickson asks?

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