While equation markups are seldom needed on S[OFU], it is absolutely essential on many science-based SE 2.0 sites e.g. Mathematics, Statistical Analysis, Physics, etc. Unicode art is not enough for not-so-simple equations.

Being a professional site, they should have equation markup support (LaTeX if possible) since the beta phase, as not to repel professionals and hinder the site's popularity.

In MathOverflow it is handled by jsMath. But as all beta sites share the same template, it's possible only if site-specific script is allowed — is it / will it be allowed?

Moreover, I hope there is an official site-wise Opt-in LaTeX support, since this is and will be a common requirement for quite a number of beta sites. (This may take 6 to 8 weeks to implement though.)

_{(Alternatively site-specific formatting hooks could be installed to convert LaTeX into images at server side, ... but no one answered in 2 days!?)}