“This game app was the next logical step in continuing to expand our innovative educational productions that make learning about science great fun.”

— Richard Siegal

Gamers of all ages can enjoy a new free app called My Molecularium, a fun, action-packed molecule-building game that challenges players to build a wide variety of fascinating molecules, from H2O and vitamin C to caffeine and adrenalin.

The action-oriented app is played by launching atoms at target bond sites to assemble molecules of increasing complexity and difficulty. Players aim and launch their atoms by moving their device using innovative laser-guided gyroscopic technology. The object of the game is to create as many molecules as you can in the shortest period of time. Fun facts about each molecule are shared with players, along with an accuracy bonus of achievements can be earned as players advance through the different levels, each with their own challenges.

The app is the latest effort of the successful Molecularium® Project, spearheaded by faculty at Rensselaer and funded by the National Science Foundation and others to excite audiences of all ages to explore and understand the molecular nature of the world around them. “It’s a fun, challenging game for all ages. Everyone can have a great time learning about the structures of a variety of important molecules while they play,” says Richard W. Siegel, founding director of Rensselaer’s Nanotechnology Center and one of the innovators behind the Molecularium Project. “This game app was the next logical step in continuing to expand our innovative educational productions that make learning about science great fun.”

The innovators behind the app project — Siegel, the Robert W. Hunt Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer, and Kurt Przybilla, producer — joined forces with a highly regarded professional team of artists, animators, and web developers to create the new game app.

In addition to the My Molecularium game app, the Molecularium Project’s educational media include: Molecules to the MAX!, originally made for IMAX and other giant-screen theaters, and now available on DVD and Blu-ray and soon to be streaming; NanoSpace®, winner of the Center for Digital Education 2013 Best of the Web award, an online educational amusement park, which includes more than 25 fun, interactive, and educational games, short animated films, and activities; and the digital-dome experience Molecularium-Riding Snowflakes, a 23-minute, award-winning show that introduced the characters Oxy, Carbón, Hydra, and Mel.

My Molecularium is available for free at the Apple App Store or Google Play or at www.molecularium.com.