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Effective Computation in Physics: Field Guide to Research with Python 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Anthony Scopatz (Author), Kathryn D. Huff (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 98 ratings
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More physicists today are taking on the role of software developer as part of their research, but software development isnâ??t always easy or obvious, even for physicists. This practical book teaches essential software development skills to help you automate and accomplish nearly any aspect of research in a physics-based field.

Written by two PhDs in nuclear engineering, this book includes practical examples drawn from a working knowledge of physics concepts. Youâ??ll learn how to use the Python programming language to perform everything from collecting and analyzing data to building software and publishing your results.

In four parts, this book includes:

  • Getting Started: Jump into Python, the command line, data containers, functions, flow control and logic, and classes and objects
  • Getting It Done: Learn about regular expressions, analysis and visualization, NumPy, storing data in files and HDF5, important data structures in physics, computing in parallel, and deploying software
  • Getting It Right: Build pipelines and software, learn to use local and remote version control, and debug and test your code
  • Getting It Out There: Document your code, process and publish your findings, and collaborate efficiently; dive into software licenses, ownership, and copyright procedures
Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-1491901533
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    O'Reilly Media
  5. Publication date
    June 25, 2015
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    9907 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kathryn Huff is a Fellow with the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and a postdoctoral scholar with the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium at the University of California Berkeley. In 2013, she received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. She has participated in varied research including experimental cosmological astrophysics, experimental non-equilibrium granular material phase dynamics, computational nuclear fuel cycle analysis, and computational reactor accident neutronics. At Wisconsin, she was a founder of The Hacker Within scientific computing group and has been an instructor for Software Carpentry since 2011. Among other professional service, she is currently an division officer in the American Nuclear Society and has served two consecutive years as the Technical Program Co-Chair of the Scientific Computing with Python (SciPy) conference.

Anthony Scopatz is a computational physicist and long time Python developer, Anthony holds his BS in Physics from UC, Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Mechanical / Nuclear Engineering from UT Austin. A former Enthought employee, he spent his post-doctoral studies at the FLASH Center at the University of Chicago in the Astrophysics Department. He is currently a Staff Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Maidson in Engineering Physics. Anthony’s research interests revolve around essential physics modeling of the nuclear fuel cycle, and information theory & entropy. Anthony is proudly a fellow of the Python Software Foundation and has published and spoken at numerous conferences on a variety of science & software development topics.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B010ORQ8DG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (June 25, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 25, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 9907 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 832 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 98 ratings

About the authors

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Previous page
  1. Kathryn D. Huff

    Kathryn D. Huff

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Kathryn Huff is a Fellow with the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and a postdoctoral scholar with the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium at the University of California Berkeley. In 2013, she received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. She has participated in varied research including experimental cosmological astrophysics, experimental non-equilibrium granular material phase dynamics, computational nuclear fuel cycle analysis, and computational reactor accident neutronics. At Wisconsin, she was a founder of The Hacker Within scientific computing group and has been an instructor for Software Carpentry since 2011. She is now the Chair of the Software Carpentry Foundation Steering Committee. Among other professional service, she is currently an division officer in the American Nuclear Society and has served three consecutive years on the organizing committee of the Scientific Computing with Python (SciPy) conference.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Anthony Scopatz

    Anthony Scopatz

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
98 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

SeferTech
5.0 out of 5 stars The book I wish I had 10 years ago when I started playing with Python...
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book should be required (and enjoyable) reading for any student/researcher/scientist/engineer new to scientific computing. The book presents a modern account of the Python scientific computing environment from the command line to publication and everything good in between e.g. NumPy to parallel computing to version control and much more (see http://physics.codes for more). The book also helps you get quickly going with Python on your computer via the Anaconda environment which is very nice. I bought the Kindle version and plan to read it on my iPad while I try the programs (freely available for download at the above website) on my Macbook (ideal combination in my opinion) - it's never been more fun to be in scientific computing that it is these days and this book will help you get started or, like me, maintain and update your overall computational skill set. A must buy and a must read! Enjoy!
10 people found this helpful
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Tanis Coralee Leonhardi
5.0 out of 5 stars Use Python for plotting
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2020
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I use different coding languages for different purposes. MATLAB is my go-to for scientific programming that is visual-intensive. C++ or C is my preferred language for heavy computational work that does not necessarily require plotting images (I follow up with quick plots in gnuplot). Unix is amazing for fast computations, working with files and directories on my computer, and working with supercomputers. HTML is great for websites (it was the first coding language I learned, I was 13 years old at the time). For me personally, I prefer Python for plotting purposes, you can do some really cool things with Matplotlib. Good book for familiarizing yourself with Python in a computational physics context.
3 people found this helpful
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Rusty Shackleford
5.0 out of 5 stars So much more than a python book...
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2021
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Amazingly practical book. I anticipate this will remain a staple in my reference library. I truly wish other books were as thorough as this one. Highest recommendation.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, don't use for learning Python
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is more of a "here's how we physicists do scientific computation, oh and here's some Python basics" rather than a real tutorial on Python. This will get you into the ecosystem but that's about it, you'll need another solution to actually learn Python in any practical manner. On the other hand, it is a good attempt at addressing the breadth of knowledge useful to those of us that work in scientific or engineering computation. But for the most part I was hoping for more depth. Some very bare bones parts in here, like "here's a python package you'll want for doing this general thing, now go and look on stackoverflow or the package docs on how to actually use it", pattern repeated throughout. But if you aren't familiar about what the field of scientific computation entails this is a good primer.
3 people found this helpful
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Doroth
5.0 out of 5 stars Learn under a fun narrative
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2015
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This book has been teaching me more than effective computation! I've learned about the community, the myths and the jokes so that I can laugh as well. The digital version contains color-coded python code, really awesome
3 people found this helpful
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Alejandro H. Delgado Peralta
5.0 out of 5 stars Without problema, on time
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2020
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Very well
One person found this helpful
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The m
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful for the self-taught, part-time coder
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2018
I’ve taught myself to code, not counting a crappy freshman C++ upteen years ago. I use MATLAB and I’m learning to dabble in Python. The reason I like this book is not for the Python parts, per se, but becuase it fills in holes in my formal training, like details on the shell as a programming tool, and how to more fully take advantage of Git for version control. As the book’s forward says, this book is for physicists (well, I’m a materials scientist) who want to learn grown-up software development, not for people who are already expert software developers.

I haven’t read the whole book, so I’m sure there are things I could criticize, but having skipped around to read the parts that I know the least about, it’s spectacular so far. If you’re unsure read the Kindle preview; it overviews the book well.
———
Edit: now, having read the whole thing, I can say this book is almost perfect for people like me: good at math and your domain science, but lacking in computer science training.
7 people found this helpful
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Eerik
3.0 out of 5 stars Not for people who only want to learn python.
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2019
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As the title of the book says; you learn computation in physics with little bit of python.

If you want to learn python and no physics/science; this book IS NOT for you. If you are a scientist who wants to learn automation for you projects; this book IS for you.

I bought this book for learning python, I am not a scientist nor a phycicist. Every practice in this book revolves around physics and atoms, they are very hard to understand if you're not a scientist yourself.

First one hundred pages are decent python learning material, the rest is for automating atom science applications.

I should've done more research about this book before spending over 40 dollars for this. Well this was a lesson.
12 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Giancarlo V.
5.0 out of 5 stars ottimo!
Reviewed in Italy on February 9, 2022
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ottimo!
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Karate Kid
5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for Python programming for scientists, not only Physicists
Reviewed in Germany on October 16, 2020
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I thought it might be too "beginerrish" for me, but I was wrong. It covers a wide range of topics, and seems to be very thorough. One of the programming books you can simple read. :)
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AP
5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is a really good book, including for those who don't aren't Physicists. It's great for anyone doing any kind of numerical research work that requires/could greatly benefit from good computational skills. It covers a wide range of topics, so it's great for getting introduced to a lot of different things. It doesn't go into great detail for all that it covers, but at the very least gives a good sense of the material, which you can then dig into further elsewhere. It's nice to have strong coverage on command line work, version control, general Python stuff, and development-type work all in one book, making it a useful one to own a copy of.
One person found this helpful
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Will D
5.0 out of 5 stars Has EVERYTHING I need
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2019
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Being new to python at university studying physics, this book really got me up to speed with the components of python. While it doesn't go very in depth to some of the components, its overview of them is brilliant, it lets you know that they are there for you and that if need be you'll have an idea as to what is required to complete your task.
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Andrea B.
3.0 out of 5 stars Ottimo testo, rilegatura di scarsa qualità.
Reviewed in Italy on July 18, 2019
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Il testo è interessante e sicuramente molto utile: offre una panoramica degli strumenti a disposizione dei ricercatori, ma non solo. Purtroppo la rilegatura del volume lascia a desiderare e alcune pagine si sono staccate nonostante il libro sia stato maneggiato con cura.
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