The purpose of this book is to show the reader how to use the Python programming
language to facilitate and automate the wide variety of data manipulation tasks encountered
in life science research and development. It is designed to be accessible to
readers with a range of interests and backgrounds, both scientific and technical. It
emphasizes practical programming, using meaningful examples of useful code. In addition
to meeting the needs of individual readers, it can also be used as a textbook for
a one-semester upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level course.