[Tutor] testing the bits of a binary number

[Phil]

I've been experimenting with a simpler way of testing the bits of a 
number without success.

Say I have a number represented as 0b00001001 and I want to test which 
bits are set. I solved this originally as I would in assembly language 
by anding a bit mask and the number. The number and the bit mask are 
shifter left followed by another anding operation until the most 
significant bit is reached.

This does work but it seems unnecessarily complex when using a high 
level language. An Internet search shows that similar questions have 
been asked and answerers given but I haven't been able to adapt those 
answerers to my problem. Can this problem be solved in a Pythonic way?

-- 
Regards,
Phil