Atomsmith® Molecule Lab is your field guide to the unseen (and unseeable) world of molecules. Whether you are a student, a teacher*, a scientist, or a "wannabe" scientist, the Molecule Lab will open your eyes to the stunning diversity and beauty of molecules and their behavior.

*It's the perfect tool to satisfy the Next Generation Science Standards' requirements for digital media, modeling and data interpretation, in conjunction with illustrating the structure and properties of matter.

Molecule Library

The Molecule Lab contains a library of over 500 carefully constructed 3D models that represent a cross section of molecules important to society and that are widely studied in chemistry, biology, geology, physics, and the health sciences.

The organization of this library reflects structural and functional relationships across a broad range of molecule types. And if you can't find the molecule that you're looking for in the Molecule Lab, search and load molecules from a collection of 25 million 3D models available in the PubChem database at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

What can you do with all of these molecules? Just tap, pinch, drag, and swipe to investigate them using the the Molecule Lab’s many colorful 3D visualization and physics-based simulation tools. Also, take advantage of the multitude of Web resources linked directly in the app.

• New to viewing molecules? Start out in the "Everyday Molecules" section of the Molecule Library and make connections between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds.

• Studying chemical bonding? Load a series of molecules and see how their valence electrons are distributed in 3D space using the Molecule Lab's "3D Lewis Structure" model type. "See" the connection between a molecule's bonding and its 3D shape.

• Learning about polarity? Examine the electronegativities of the atoms in a molecule and then draw a colored surface around the molecule designating its negative and positive charges. Next, make and test a prediction about how the molecule will interact with other molecules in the Live Lab.

• Looking at minerals under a microscope? Dive deeper and explore the Molecule Lab's large collection of mineral crystal structures and build crystal lattices by simply tapping your finger.

Live Lab

Molecules are in constant motion and they interact with each other via electrostatic forces. Put molecules into the Live Lab’s "virtual box" and run simulations that allow you to see these motions and intermolecular forces (dispersion, dipole-dipole, hydrogen bonding). Then perform experiments on the molecules as you vary the composition, temperature, volume and pressure of the simulation.

• Load a model of a sodium chloride crystal (table salt). Build a layer of water molecules around it. Start a simulation and watch as the polar water molecules dissociate the sodium and chloride ions and see how the water molecules orient themselves around the ions.

Learning with the Atomsmith Molecule Lab

What else can you do with the Atomsmith Molecule Lab? The only limit is your imagination,
and that will grow the more you explore. Plus, we've provided a collection of tools to help you learn with the Molecule Lab:

• Onscreen tutorials walk you through the steps of how to use the Molecule Lab to explore a broad range of concepts in general, organic and biological chemistries.

• An exhaustive glossary puts simple, clear explanations of many terms and concepts at your fingertips.

• A News feature links to current news articles about molecules in everyday society and commerce. Read the news, then examine models of the molecules in the Molecule Lab.

Volume discount pricing is available to schools through the Apple Volume Purchase Program.