Hot scripting language: Python

In a sense, the tipping point for Python came when the housing market crashed.

For those stuck trying to decode bond market prospectuses to figure out who got paid what when the bankruptcy dominoes were done falling, one thing became clear: English is a weaselly language, and some weaselly folks revel in its ambiguities to profit from complicated derivatives.

Enter one smart group that offered a compelling solution: Force every bond to come with a Python program that defined who got paid and when they were paid. While they may have been a bit too hopeful about the power of computer languages, the proposal spoke to Python's growing acceptance in the greater world of smart people who aren't computer geeks. Relatively easy to pick up, Python is becoming increasingly popular in economic research, science departments, and biology labs.