I found this video fascinating, but not because people aren’t familiar with nuclear synthesis. Rather, it’s the reactions people have when asked how the Sun gets its energy. It’s almost as if they’re surprised not because they don’t know the answer, but because they never asked the question in the first place. You can see the respondents start to try to figure it out, offering guesses, and at least one person ultimately admitting it’s one of those things you think you ought to know but don’t.

Videos like this are very revealing because they help illustrate how little the public knows about the universe – even the parts of it we depend on for our survival.