The Python Tutorial (http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ http://docs.python.org/tutorial/) is really pretty good. Now, if you are doing more researchy work, then

The Python Tutorial (http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ http://docs.python.org/tutorial/) is really pretty good. Now, if you are doing more researchy work, then a lot of the web stuff is peripheral. My advice would be to use scipy (the swiss army knife of scientific programming with python), matplotlib (for 2D plots), something for 3D (maybe Mayavi2?), NetworkX for networks, PyTables for storing read-only data, the inbuilt csv library, ctypes or weave for performance ... and domain specific libraries here: http://www.scipy.org/Topical_Software http://www.scipy.org/Topical_Software But don't worry about all that yet. You can hack together a good demo with nothing but scipy and matplotlib.