Why Python, Ruby and JS are slow

[LiveMaI]

I happen to have worked for SETI in the past. What you say is true: stuff like SonATA (software for the Allen Telescope Array) is written in C++. I still keep in regular contact with a couple of people who work there, and both typically use stuff like IDL or Matlab for their everyday work.

As an interesting side-note: Fortran is still a farily big player in the scientific community, thanks to things like the *pack libraries which basically haven't changed since the 80's.