Yes, see Introducing: Markdown Shortcuts for Stack Exchange. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that you will need to learn a new bunch of shortcuts (or customise them). That is all we really have, though. There is no way around the fact that formatting equations, etc. properly requires some learning.

Using TeX syntax here (or something that is pretty close to it) is probably the best we can do. TeX is at least somewhat familiar to many scientists, and generally formatting stuff does not require much more than a very basic knowledge of it.

Yes, see Introducing: Markdown Shortcuts for Stack Exchange. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that you will need to learn a new bunch of shortcuts (or customise them). That is all we really have, though. There is no way around the fact that formatting equations, etc. properly requires some learning.

Using TeX syntax here (or something that is pretty close to it) is probably the best we can do. TeX is at least somewhat familiar to many scientists, formatting most stuff does not require much more than a very basic knowledge of it, and there are lots of people to edit posts anyway.