Structure for Mac

User Reviews

• Very cool look at molecular structures of life

  VersionTrackerUserOpinion9/6/2006

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Beautifully rendered close-up view of the incredible molecular complexity that is the physical substrate of life. It would be a genuinely educational piece of software, and get a full 5 stars from me, if it included documentation on things like the intriguing substructural elements in many molecules, such as large shimmering transluscent spheres attached by thick, white hexagonally-shaped sticks (like a wooden pencil), or the radially symmetrical patterns of balls and sticks rendered in a dwarfed form within a large tube-modelled molecule. Of more practical urgency would be documentation explaining the various Preferences settings, like the choices for what property is represented by the molecule's colouring -- the default is "temperature". What's that mean? One might find some of the missing documentation at the website of the open source molecular modelling software used by the screensaver, NCBI's C++ Toolkit. A similar problem beyond the screen saver author's control is the absence of accompanying info displayed with some of the molecules. Structure downloads these models from a public database, so just like those annoying people who create mp3's with no identification of artist or song, some molecular biologists must be posting new molecules to the database without filling in the info fields. Grrr...

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• Great screensaver

  jolit9/12/2005

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I couldn't agree more, a ribbon diagram (not losing sight of bound residues) would be an excellent option. Helices filled with green arrows make it too crowded. Now if they only ported over the molecule xscreensaver, that would be one wonderful alternative...

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