Built at the bench,
for the bench.
The Story
For years, I had the same handful of websites bookmarked - the same ones every bench scientist has. A nucleic acid mass-to-molarity converter that hasn't been updated since the mid-2000s. A Tm calculator on a university page that might disappear any day. A protein MW tool that takes 10 seconds to load and shows three ads before you can type anything.
I'd switch between four or five of these every day, sometimes mid-experiment, sometimes with gloves still on, always thinking "why isn't this all just in one place on my phone?"
Then my PhD student asked me how to calculate the molarity of a DNA stock from the A260 reading. And I found myself explaining the maths on a whiteboard instead of just pointing at an app - because there wasn't one that did it properly. Not one that worked offline, didn't track you, and had everything a molecular biologist actually needs in one place.
So I built one.
BenchCalc started as the app I wished I'd had at the bench. Every tool in it exists because I needed it, or because someone in the lab asked me for it. It grew from a few calculators into 49 tools, 11 protocols, and 8 reference tables - basically everything I found myself reaching for between experiments.
What Makes It Different
The web is full of lab calculator sites. Most of them exist to rank on Google and serve you ads - not to help you do science. Every page wrapped in cookie banners, tracking scripts, and pop-ups before you can even type a number.
BenchCalc is a native mobile app. It runs on your phone and works fully offline - no loading screens, no spinning icons, no "please check your connection" when you're standing in a cold room with one bar of signal. There are no ads, no analytics, and no account required. Your calculations stay on your device.
Who Built It
Dr Jason Woodgate
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University
My research focuses on the coupling of transcription and translation in bacteria. I published in Nature in 2024. BenchCalc started because I got tired of using the same ancient websites between experiments.
BenchCalc is made by Feedings Ltd, a small UK software company I founded. We also make FeeDings! (an RSS reader) and Influence (AI-powered interactive fiction).
Company Details
Feedings LTD
Director: Dr Jason Woodgate
Company No: 16795680
Registered in England and Wales
Email: [email protected]