Those studying physics and astronomy, and perhaps other scientific disciplines as well, are accustomed to the use of scientific shorthand and in some fields it is essential -- the example above of distance between energy waves from supernovae is a good example. There is a high level of variation in these distances, so a shorthand like the one on financial statements would be apply, but the numbers are very small so the use of shorthand is necessary. It is interesting to note, however, that even those in fields accustomed to scientific notation sometimes avoid it, as is the case with distances between objects in space.
Another group that does something similar to astronomers is the archaeologists. They have found ways to talk about years without using scientific notation, even though events often date back millions or billions of years. Yet, when discussing the science behind dating their samples, they will often use scientific notation, because that process involves radiation, carbon...
It can be concluded, however, from these examples, that the use of scientific notation is uncommon, and only used in highly specialized scientific fields. Even within those fields, practitioners have often developed a number of workaround solutions to avoid using scientific notation.
Works Cited:
Hoflich, P.; Wheeler, J. & Khokhlov, A. (1997). Hard x-rays and gamma rays from type Ia supernovae. The Astrophysical Journal. Vol. 492 (1998) 228-245.
Lalho, J. (2010). Light quark physics from lattice QCD. The XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory. Retrieved November 19, 2011 from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:gDvRm6TY1VMJ:arxiv.org/pdf/1106.0457+physics+1.5e+%2B+09&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj0lgK5NDCG9_6ieDz24CvN4cltyb2a6Rkcxewes9FXnLbXorx8egE4f6_a7wSR-YQXM9fvOSZ3D05z4ASakSK1f48HrDiYS0JnlOLNbF3-1-upjAM4N-DhnF8rUoEmdWRK-qQC&sig=AHIEtbQ5aUobZS_c9iSSgDQqnLuG1-Kw2Q
