The ability of apps to function as teaching tools, or at least providers of useful information, feels great at times. Even just putting an encyclopedia in the pocket of every iPhone or iPad Touch owner seems like a great start. But then there are times when an opportunity to educate is missed.
The Molecules app is a good example. I know the most basic amount about molecular structure that a person who passed some college science courses and watches Breaking Bad might know. That is to say — not a lot. But after playing around with Molecules for a while, I don't feel any more knowledgeable than I did beforehand, and that bothers me.
It turns out that the Molecules app is basically just 3D models of a handful of molecules, like insulin, caffeine and DNA. The description in the App Store isn't misleading about the info that you can find in this app, but Molecules still feels like a missed opportunity.
Each object has only the most basic additional information, telling you the number of structures involved in the item you're looking at as well as the number of atoms it contains. There is no information that might explain the structure or the atoms or anything else that would be remotely helpful to someone who wanted to know more than what the molecular structure of caffeine looks like. Not even links to Wikipedia pages.
You can download even more molecules to the app if you desire, but without more background on the things you're looking at, this app doesn't have much for a science novice like myself.
And I guess that's fine. If you want to check out the admittedly cool-looking double helix of DNA, this is the app for that. But I can't help feeling that there was a great potential to educate that Molecules missed.
BradLarson
As the author of Molecules, I'd like to respond to your criticisms.
First off, let's get one thing straight: Molecules is totally free, in every sense of the word. I don't charge for it, there's no in-app purchase, there's no advertising, and I even release the source code under the BSD license. I work on this application because I enjoy doing so and feel that it is a rewarding use of my time. When I read something like this, I lose some of that motivation.
Molecules was never intended to be a chemistry or biochemistry class in a box. It is a targeted application for viewing the three-dimensional structures of molecules. Educators use this as a supplement to their course material to great effect. Young students can interact with molecular structures in a way that's never been possible before, building an excitement about science that I hope will last their entire lifetime. It does what it's designed to do, and nothing more. The best iOS applications don't throw in everything but the kitchen sink, they narrow their feature set down to the right core functionality and polish that.
The things you request, as far as detailed information about the molecules, or links to Wikipedia about them, would not work because most of these molecular structures are not documented beyond the information I present here. The two resources that structures are pulled from, the RCSB Protein Data Bank and NCBI's PubChem, are giant central repositories of discovered or calculated molecular models. They don't contain the full text of the research papers or other publications that describe the structures, nor would you be able to understand them if they did. For example, the structure 3QE5 which I ship with the new version of the application is a protein structure discovered this past year by my brother's research group. No Wikipedia page exists for that molecule, and even I struggle with the content of their research paper on it.
In regards to your statement "the Molecules app is basically just 3D models of a handful of molecules, like insulin, caffeine and DNA.", hopefully you have seen that you can download tens of thousands more structures than that from the aforementioned Protein Data Bank or PubChem by tapping on the "Download New Molecules" menu option (on iPhone) or the plus button above the molecule list on iPad. The application is certainly not limited to just the ones that ship with it. Those are just starters so that people have something to work with out of the box.
I recognize that the application could be improved to aid students and educators, and I'm working to do so. One of the primary requests for the last three years has been support for small molecule structures and a searchable database for those, which is what version 2.0 introduced. There are many items on my list for enhancing the educational value of the application, such as a color key for the CPK atomic color scheme I use within the structures, clearly displayed double and triple bonds, and a way of using structures as a kind of 3-D flash card system for chemistry students.
However, the lack of these features does not prevent the application from being useful in an educational context, as you assert. I have many, many emails, tweets, and other responses from students, teachers, and scientists that say otherwise. I've heard from professors who are using it in all their classes, institutions that are buying iPads just for this application, and conference organizers making it an integral part of their technical sessions. Additionally, the code for this application is used within several other applications, such as Inkling, where it provides interactive molecular models within their biology and chemistry texts (to rave reviews).
The over 1.5 million people who have downloaded Molecules to date seem to find value in the application as it is. It lets you do something in the palm of your hand that required a dedicated workstation ten years ago, and the new version uses a visualization technique first developed only five years ago for high-end desktop GPUs.
Thankfully, people can download this for free themselves and determine whether or not it is useful to them, without having to take your or my word for it.