Responding to both swampyankee and kennethk, there is little point in talking to the db-guy about bioperl, and for the art of computational science, we have the brilliant if needing an update wolf book.

I guess an image problem is countered typically with a campaign. A consolidated campaign of the http://perlbuzz.com kind but directed to science would be a good way.

By the way, I am not attempting to define or pigeon-hole science here. In my world, science is image and geographic analysis and data visualization. Perl can and does help in both, and can work in conjunction with better tools such as Processing (for visualization). Actually, come to think of it, a Perl module that interfaces with Processing would really make me smile.

Thanks for the responses though. I already feel a bit better.