When a condom breaks, the next form of contraception shouldn't be "prayers". Jokes aside, (or not), a broken condom can be a nightmare, though not very often. To convince people to use them more often, the Gates Foundation is looking to scientists to make better ones.

A better condom design would mean stronger and thinner (for a natural feel). So scientists are hoping to use graphene for the future of condoms. Not only is it virtually indestructible, and only one atom thick, it is also highly conductive. That means, using a condom, could actually be pretty satisfying.

The Gates Foundation just awarded a $100,000 grant to a team from the University of Manchester that is trying to develop the technology.

"Currently, people imagine using graphene in mobile-phone screens, food packaging and chemical sensors," says Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, the materials scientist who's leading the research. "If this project is successful, we might have a use for graphene which will touch our everyday life in the most intimate way."

The Gates Foundation gave a total of eleven $100,000 grants to teams of scientists around the world working on new condom technology.

From a condom that gently tightens, to ones that use shape memory material and ones that use collagel fibrils from cow tendons, the future of the condom may be diversified in tech, but will aim to make the invention better.

Read on more about it here.