Comments

I'm skeptical of things like this. For one, does this work like dropping a seed crystal into a super-saturated solution? In other words, when the guy blows his load and the semen is released near the cervix, is the solid going to spread to non-spermy areas? Presumably, the act of sex itself would thoroughly coat the inside of a vagina with the squirty condom; such a "condom" would only be feasible if one drop of semen anywhere on the liquid would instantly "freeze" and spread to all contiguous parts of the liquid, otherwise full-coverage protection is not offered. And then you have to wonder, once this thing solidifies, how do you get it out? Do you have to reach in and scrape it out? Does it fall out? Could you just queef it out? How would you get this off of a man? But most of all, since this "condom" solidifies upon contact with semen, what protection, if any, does it offer from diseases that are not spread through semen but rather through skin contact, like herpes, genital warts, and syphilis? If it offers no protection, then you're essentially barebacking without barebacking, and two weeks later you could find some funny-looking spots on your junk. Does it even protect against HIV infection from the woman to the man, which needs no emission of semen to occur? If this technology was impregnated (no pun intended) with anti-viral, anti-bacterial, spermicidal ingredients and managed to instantly seed-freeze all the way through, as well as being both easily removable from a man and a woman, there might really be something to it. Until then, I'll stick to my rubbers and pills. Alice Reilly Department of Biology Mercer University

Ugh, when will people learn that Mother Nature and the barefoot runner know best? For most, almost all, of the human race, there is no need for a special shoe and shoes are ruining the health of our feet. Alice Reilly Department of Biology Mercer University

I get wary any time I hear someone mention weight gain / loss and fat vs. carbs. It is things like this that brought us the Atkins diet, which has left many unfortunate people (although slightly thinner) with dangerous cholesterol levels and a severe lack of fiber. The way this article is written implies that carbs are bad, because no matter how many carbs the mice were given, they didn't get fat. We need to always remember that we don't have that gene and we need to be wary of making people think that carbs are bad; we need them for energy, and an excess of anything is never good! Were this gene to be inserted into humans and the goodness or badness of carbs to be taken out of the equation, we still need to remember that fat is important as well. Sure, historically obesity was a good thing because it tended to mean that you were rich and didn't have to work, but the capacity to become obese is a good thing. In our society, we don't have problems with famine, so we don't need to become obese any more to tide us over in thin times, but we still need fat. Fat is not just for energy; fat is insulation. If you give someone the capability to never get fat, and if they have a child who carries that gene, you greatly endanger the child; brown fat is essential after birth in keeping up the temperature of one's head and torso. This article does not point out whether or not it is just impossible to get fat, or impossible to build up necessary stores of body fat. The reason marathon runners carbo load the night before a race is because they want to build up such energy stores as glycogen in their liver, and at the end of the race (or when they "hit the wall") many collapse with exhaustion. If the human body has such extensive capabilities of burning off carbohydrates, if we can completely exhaust them, then imagine what would happen if we had the ability to use fat as an energy source and completely exhausted it (which is exactly what happens when you exert yourself to physical exhaustion)! We have fat for a reason, evolution has given us fat, and we would be wise to not tinker with Mother Nature's design. Alice Reilly Department of Biology Mercer University

We stalk you; your comments are sexy, lol. Alice Reilly Department of Biology Mercer University

I would imagine they had done genetic testing. Then again, this IS PopSci's writing we're talking about, and that's not exactly reliable. Alice Reilly Department of Biology Mercer University