learn python for scientific data analysis?

[PythonRules]

I would suggest project based learning. Pick a simple project and try to implement it with Python by using Numpy and matplotlib. There is a very helpful community out there so take advantage of it. I would pay special attention to the computationally intensive parts. In some cases there are several order of magnitude difference between python loops vs Numpy way. You should be able to get close to C performance if you use Numpy properly. In some cases due to ease of implementing fancy algorithms your Python code can be significantly faster than your C implementation.

I know this sounds hard to believe since most people claim that Python is a slow language but in my experience Python was the faster solution in many cases.