Qingqi (Steve) Wang, a Faculty member and E-Learning Developer in the School of Biosciences at Nottingham University, has recently developed a number of very exciting Web applications with iPhone/iPod Touch-specific interfaces for his Bio Courseware website. Wang’s iPhone apps include a genetic decoder, periodic table, bio and chem dictionaries, HTML 5 reference, and—most recently—a virtual yeast cell.

The Bio Courseware apps are especially elegant, combining accessible information and simplicity in a presentation brilliantly suited for the iPhone’s (Touch’s) small interface. We think Wang’s apps do a great job of helping academics see possibilities they couldn’t have imagined otherwise. Discussing the process of his iPhone app. development in a recent email exchange with iThinkEd, Wang asserts that “the beginning stage is the most difficult period.” He writes, “I have to shift my idea from traditional web design to a specific web style for iPhone. The small interface of the iPhone needs more accurate and skilful layout to contain more content without mess.”

Wang goes on to suggest that the iPhone is an ideal mobile platform because it “affords a mobile solution for pocket references, calculators, newspapers, readers, remote communications and more.” He asserts that his Cal Concentration app was designed as “a tool that was special for lab researchers to calculate solutions or buffer concentrations when preparing them. Concentration calculation is usually a difficult work for lab beginners. This tool is a good trial of lab mobile solution that can help them to start their work easier.”

Be sure to check out Wang’s Biocourseware apps at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~sbzqw/.