Quirky App Of The Day: Molecules
by Kathryn Zane
August 31, 2011
I'm going to take a small break from utterly ridiculous apps, and focus on a smart app. I know, it's surely a sign of the apocalypse, but I think this one is truly fascinating. This app is all about molecular structures. The app Molecules allows users to rotate and inspect molecules up close.
I think it's amazing that something so small can look so huge on screen and be made of hundreds of smaller parts. The app comes preloaded with some fascinating molecules for users to look at. The first is the most famous molecular structure: DNA. There's also information on each molecule. DNA, for example, is made of 566 atoms and has only one structure. There are also journal citations that users can read to find more information.
So, what makes this app so quirky? I haven't been out of high school for very long. I haven't even hit my 10 year reunion mark yet. However, when I was in high school, I had to use a computer to get a 2D rendering of a molecule. I had to use balls and pegs for a 3D rendering that I could rotate. I had to watch movies of the larger scale renderings like DNA. I had to look up the journals in the media center, and I had a textbook that was about five years old.
This app is fascinating and entertaining because it combines so many various resources into one handy little app. The ability to download more molecular models from huge chemistry databases expands this app beyond what I had personal access to. It's amazing and interesting as a marker of what education is available to anyone that wants it. Not only can I now find all of this information on the Internet, but I can have it in the palm of my hand. There's no longer any excuse to not learn about something if you want to badly enough.
Molecules is available on the App Store for the awesome price of FREE!