Python, unlike any other language I've dealt with, lends itself very nicely to producing stuff that's reusable and easy to understand. I chalk this up to
* lack of elitism in documentation (e.g. there are always plenty of examples)
* lack of elitism in conventions for code use: everything "just works", generally without any boilerplate
* installing libraries is a snap, and the whole module organization system is intuitive and elegant
* assumption that anything that's not a script is a library
* documentation conventions (doctests, e.g., are a nice stepping stone to good documentation _and_ code testing)
* the "there's only one way to do it" attitude
* large standard library
On the other topic: you are describing the way research works "today", which is actually pretty poorly (why, e.g., does all data need to be surrounded by so many words of introduction and discussion? why can't I just add something to someone else's work like I can add to an open source project?). This model of research will change, at one point or another, to resemble the much more efficient, effective, and fun, open source project model.
* lack of elitism in documentation (e.g. there are always plenty of examples)
* lack of elitism in conventions for code use: everything "just works", generally without any boilerplate
* installing libraries is a snap, and the whole module organization system is intuitive and elegant
* assumption that anything that's not a script is a library
* documentation conventions (doctests, e.g., are a nice stepping stone to good documentation _and_ code testing)
* the "there's only one way to do it" attitude
* large standard library
On the other topic: you are describing the way research works "today", which is actually pretty poorly (why, e.g., does all data need to be surrounded by so many words of introduction and discussion? why can't I just add something to someone else's work like I can add to an open source project?). This model of research will change, at one point or another, to resemble the much more efficient, effective, and fun, open source project model.