January 1, 1970 (Vol. , No. )
Rating:
Strong Points: Clean design, many tools
Weak Points: Can’t be used in landscape mode
Platform:
iPad/iPhone
Cost:
Free
Summary:
Just as science changes over the years, so, too, do science apps. I reviewed Invitrogen’s CloningBench app (now of Thermo Fisher Scientific) a few years back, but since then the app has been re-vamped and thus warrants a revisit. The look of the homepage is very sleek, as it’s cleanly segmented into the nine calculators and tools that comprise the app. The nine tools are: a restriction enzyme finder, a double digest finder, a selection guide for competent cell reagents (e.g. the product-centric, commercial aspect of the app), calculators for nucleic acid concentration, PCR mastermixes, vector-to-insert molar ratios, and molar quantities, a bacterial growth timer, and a gene size estimator (based on DNA-protein conversions). The tools are useful (if simple), although one limitation of the app when using it “in the field” is that it can’t be used in landscape mode.
