Overthepastseveralyears,PythonhasemergedasacrediblealternativetoscientificanalysisenvironmentslikeIDLorMATLAB.Stablecorepackagesnowexistforhan‐dlingnumericalarrays(NumPy),analysis(SciPy),andplotting(matplotlib).Ahugeselectionofmorespecializedsoftwareisalsoavailable,reducingtheamountof