Smart underwear designed to protect male fertility from radiation emitted by smartphones and laptops has been unveiled by a British scientist.

Described by Sir Richard Branson as “underpants for superheroes”, the Wireless Armour underwear contains a mesh of pure silver woven into the fabric that shields against 99.9 per cent of electromagnetic radiation, which is emitted from devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops, and has been linked to fertility problems by scientists.

Inventor Joseph Perkins said that the growing popularity of smart, but radiation-emitting devices prompted him to take action.

“Like so many people, my smartphone and laptop use has increased dramatically in recent years, which made me realise that I was exposing myself to large amounts of electromagnetic radiation, mostly centred on my groin,” he said.

“With my physics background I knew there must be a way to shield from electromagnetic radiation using a simple solution.

“Wireless Armour has been tested by an industry leader in wireless shielding and the results show that our fabric shields against 99.9 per cent of the radiation emitted between 100MHz to 2.6GHz.

“Put simply, this covers the entire range of radiation emitted by wireless devices, from voice and text through to 4G and Wi-Fi, almost everything is blocked.”

The silver in the Wireless Armour smart underpants disrupts the flow of electromagnetic radiation as silver is a conductor of electricity, and distributes it evenly around the mesh.

It is estimated that 70 million couples are affected by infertility worldwide, and according to a 2014 study by the University of Exeter there is a strong link between exposure to electromagnetic radiation and a lower sperm count.