iPhone apps and science go hand in hand. Maybe you need to quickly refer to the Periodic Table, or perhaps you need help with your solubility calculations. Whether you are planning for a career in science or you just need to pass a science class in college, here are 10 iPhone apps you shouldn’t be without.

Photo by: Okko Pyykko on Flickr Creative Commons

1. Chemical Elements (Free)
This chemistry app is a versatile reference tool that presents a list of the elements in portrait mode. Flip it to landscape, and it turns into a touchable periodic table. You can sort elements by atomic number or alphabet. Common features of the elements are given with some with photos.

2. Atom in a Box (.99)
This physics app displays an interactive, visual representation of what a hydrogen atom looks like via real-time rendering of its electrons’ orbitals. See the three-dimensional states that the electron occupies in hydrogen. View animations and mathematical descriptions of all 140 eigenstates up to the n=7 energy level. Even if you are not familiar with Quantum Mechanics, it still looks cool, and your friends will think you are smart.

3. Get All the Science (Free)
This news aggregator app gives you up-to-date news from the science industry. Stay on top of the latest stories with news feeds from “Nature,” “New Scientist” and several other interesting science publications, all in one place.

4. Uranus (.99)
This is a must-have if you are taking astronomy, but it’s also a good prop for romantic evening strolls if you want to impress your date. With a database of over 100,000 stars, planets, galaxies and more, this GPS-enabled app acts as a guide to the night sky wherever you happen to be standing on Earth.

5. Genetic Decoder (Free)
Biology students, behold the Genetic Decoder app. Simply tap your mobile device to change RNA codons, and the corresponding amino acid information will be displayed. You can browse information by selecting an amino acid from the list. All amino acid and molecules are represented with colorful pictures.

6. Starmap (.99)
Another pocket planetarium app, Starmap is designed for more advanced star gazers as it provides a fully portable way of locating stars, planets, constellations, meteor showers and deep-field objects in the night sky. Calibrate your location or use iPhone’s GPS feature to toggle between north-, east-, south-, and west-view sky charts.

7. Equivalence (.99)
Equivalence is the ultimate conversion tool. Designed for engineers, the Equivalence iPhone app converts all sorts of measurements such as temperature, mass, volume and currency. Tilt your iPhone/iPod on its side and get the equivalence calculator.

8. Spacetime 4.0 (.95)
Algebra and calculus students, rejoice. Touted as the most powerful mathematics and graphing program, Spacetime 4.0 allows you to graph 2D and 3D function, parametric, spherical and cylindrical plots. Rotate, pinch and move 3D graphs in real-time. Spacetime also performs both numeric and symbolic algebra and calculus (including some advanced functions) and supports scripting.

9.  Epocrates RX (Free)
This app is sure to please medical students and hypochondriacs alike. With this pocket pharmacy, you can look up more than 3,300 drugs, including pill pictures, infectious disease treatment guides, medical calculators, a commonly-used pregnancy wheel, unit conversions and more. It is said that doctors use this app. So why not get one yourself to make sure your busy doctor isn’t missing anything?

10. iCut DNA (4.99)
This app allows you to search the Restriction Enzyme Database (REBASE) for enzymes and the DNA nucleotide sequences they cleave. Find commonly used (type II) restriction enzymes by name or by specifying the recognition sequence. Information from the database for each enzyme includes references, suppliers, isoschizomers and methylation site.

April Lentini writes for apartmentguide.com

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