• Python Tutorial, Guido van Rossum, 2006; download from http://docs.python.org/tut/
• Python Basics: http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~warner/prog/python.html (good summary of useful features)
• Debugging from “How to Think like a Python Programmer” by Allen B. Downey - pdf file

Science 2020: Challenges and opportunities arising from the increasing synthesis of computing and the sciences (also in Nature, March 2006)