Blender is becoming increasingly important for scientific purposes. Its close integration of Python makes it extremely flexible and suitable for visualization of scientific data but also for simulations. Prominent examples are BioBlender, an add-on to visualize and study proteins,
and MORSE, a robot simulator.
MORSE 1.0 Trailer from HCAI TUM on Vimeo.
A few months ago, Py3DN appeared, which is another add-on for Blender to visualize and analyse morphological data of neurons.
Good tools, which show that Blender is becoming a powerful environment for the fast development of specialized software tools.