[dwyer]

Yeah, the non-phonic nature of written Chinese leads to dozens of dialects in which two Chinese speakers can read the exact same sentence without a single overlapping syllable between them.

Regarding scientific communication in particular, the most obscure Chinese characters are for words unique to scientific fields, so while the average English speaker might not be able to understand an English physics paper, the average Chinese speaker can't even read a Chinese physics paper. In other words, you must possess above average Chinese skills to communicate about science.