A Plea for Indices

Recent news reports of developments in cosmological theories mention 'a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second'.

That appears to mean 10^-36 seconds.

Confronted by a number either very large or very small, people are likely to count the digits to the left of the decimal point, or the leading zeroes to the right. It is therefore considerate to do the counting for them.

To someone who can't convert it to standard form 'a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second' means little more than 'a number too small for you to understand' so nothing would be lost by using index form in the first place.