The most accessible field in science, from the point of view of language, is astrophysics. What do you call spots on the sun? Sunspots. Regions of space you fall into and you don’t come out of? Black holes. Big red stars? Red giants. So I take my fellow scientists to task. He’ll use his word, and if I understand it, I’ll say, “Oh, does that mean da-da-da-de-da? Neil Degrasse Tyson
About This Quote

Astrophysicists tend to be pretty formal when it comes to naming and classifying things in the universe. This can lead to some very confusing words and phrases in everyday conversation. For instance, when you say "the sun is hot," the astrophysicist hears "the sun is a spherical body of gas that radiates light and causes our planet to spin." This might sound like gibberish, but the physicist would understand you perfectly well. But when you say "the sun is hot," it's hard for him to make sense of it. So he goes with the next most accessible field in science, from the point of view of language, and says "spots on the sun." The word is probably not quite right (they're more like tiny black holes), but at least they're accessible.

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