If there’s anything I’ve learned about D TechnoLabs in the past two weeks is they like their apps sparsely decorated. And by spare, I mean barren.

With ASL – American Sign Language, and iBaby Care, D TechnoLabs has established their penchant for a stripped-down, bare-bones app that manages to be simple without being streamlined. Lacking any thorough navigation of any kind, this developer instead prefers a lonely list, where each entry leads to an extension of the cut-off sentence – their apps remind me of slapdash PowerPoint presentations in college, where the student just reformulates textbook information into bullet points and brackets, without making the information that much easier to absorb. Regardless of the beige presentation exhibited in all their apps, D TechnoLabs at least has one thing going for them: the information contained within is actually quite useful.

Their latest app, Cool Science Facts Pro contains a plethora of random factoids that remind me of things I discovered as a kid, and would tell to others in a bout of frenzied passion and gusto. Knowledge like, “the female lion is a much more efficient hunter than the male” only amplified my confidence as a little girl when I would remind bullying boys that I could carry my own weight, especially if I were a lioness. Of course, my geeky comments would usually result in me being pushed into mud and bursting into tears, but enough on my history. A lot of the facts contained in this app are of the geological and biological variety, running the gamut from meteors and lightning strikes and hurricanes, to diseases, animal gestation periods, and how much distance would be covered if you connected all the blood vessels in the body. In other words, most of the facts in Cool Science Facts Pro are of the strictly novel kind – trivia meant to wow and raise eyebrows, over things like surprising statistics or strange, theoretical claims that while true, would be hard to implement (the blood vessel one).

I, myself, prefer the oddball animal ones. Take this, for example: did you know a cockroach can live for nine days without its head? Boy, is that gross, but isn’t it super cool? We’ve heard stories about chickens remaining alive and kicking, even running around chicken coops without a head for as long as a minute, but living nine days without a head? That’s some serious business. There are a few head-scratchers in the bunch, like the apparent fact that more babies are born at night than in the morning. I’m not sure how knowing that would improve anyone’s life, or boost your ego in terms of your intellectual prowess, but I suppose it’s an interesting thing to point out to someone – I’m sure a woman giving birth in the morning will just burst into sunshiny glee upon hearing that little food for thought (“hey candice, you’re an outlier!”).

Some of the facts are more history-oriented, like knowing the watch was invented in Nuremberg in 1510, or that just over a decade later in 1522, Ferdinand Magellan’s crew completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Some of the history tidbits are a bit silly, like reading about how Europeans “started drinking tea from China in 1610 and started drinking coffee in 1615.” That’s all good and well, but without the proper context – say, the significance of the beverage switch, or what economic tidings or new technologies brought about this change – this fact is a little weak, with little significance. Another weak one is “Benjamin Franklin began his research into electricity in 1746.” Once again, that’s good to know, but how about completing the thought? When did he finally create a successful use of electricity? But, for every weak factoid, there’s a surprising one that makes me do a double-take: did you know that each year more snow falls in Australia than in the whole of the European Alps? Upon first reading that definitely made me raise my eyebrows in surprise, but when I actually thought about it, the location of Australia, the large land mass compared to the Alps, it was plainly obvious.

I had trouble with one fact, in particular, about the Inuit and their low rate of heart disease. The app claims the Inuit consume a largely salmon-rich diet and this is why they have low cholesterol, and thus a low incidence of heart disease. While there is some correlation between cholesterol and heart disease, it is definitely not an ironclad precursor to any heart disease, and more and more studies are proving that cholesterol may not have anything to do with it at all. It’s true, there is a correlation between Omega-3 rich salmon and a lower incidence of heart disease – a very strong correlation, particularly in those who follow a Mediterranean diet – but the Inuits only eat salmon seasonally, and it most certainly does not make up a large portion of their diet. In the past, when the Inuit relied less on current, modernized conveniences, their natural diet subsisted quite largely on blubber, of the seal variety, which as we may presume, is laden with saturated fat – in other words, pure lard. Depending on ancestry, genetics, and a myriad host of other complex factors, the Inuit were evolved to be naturally adept at processing saturated fat, and being physically fat, without it contributing to to a lower state of health. Much like the purported “French Paradox”, or of people who live predominately on steak and eggs and bacon with no negative effects, we are still in the dark as to how nutrition works, and how it effects our general state of being. Winnowing down the Inuit’s cardiovascular health to salmon, therefore, is hardly a fact.

Aside from this grievance, I found the facts in Cool Science Facts Pro to be legitimate and of interesting pull. It’s too bad a major drawback for the app is the bland aesthetics: the plain premise, the absent navigational ease, and the lack of any exciting stimuli, like pictures or even a color beside the blanketed green. I just wish this app wasn’t so boring to look at, because it makes it very unexciting for adults, let alone kids.