This is a good post (and other posts below). But... "scientists" is not a descriptive word. If you are talking about biologists, they'd gain more from knowing h

This is a good post (and other posts below). But... "scientists" is not a descriptive word. If you are talking about biologists, they'd gain more from knowing high school math than from programming. Math majors on the other hand need to program if they want to find jobs outside the actuarial field. Same for physics and chemistry. A regular C++/Java course should be enough to get started.