Are poor geniuses being shut out of science?

A recent study claiming inequality of opportunity in the sciences commits statistical and conceptual errors that make its findings meaningless.

---

A recent paper published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, titled "Access to Opportunity in the Sciences: Evidence From the Nobel Laureates," found that 67 percent of science Nobel Prize winners have "fathers from above the 90th income percentile in their birth country." The authors, affiliated with Imperial College London, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, claim that their paper reveals extreme inequality in the science world and suggests that undiscovered geniuses from poor backgrounds never had the chance to show what they could do for humanity.

The study received considerable press attention, including a piece in The Guardian claiming that it showed "a lot of talent wasted…and breakthroughs lost."

"The Nobel prizes highlight that we have a biased system in science and little is being done to even out the playing field," wrote scientist Kate Shaw in Physics World. "We should not accept that such a tiny demographic are born 'better' at science than anyone else."

This study contains several statistical and conceptual errors, making its findings meaningless. It provides no evidence that unequal opportunity in science limits human progress.

Motion Graphics: Adani Samat

Producers: Aaron Brown and Cody Huff

Audio: Ian Keyser

Graphics: Nathalie Walker

Photo Credits: Universal Archive/Universal Images Group/Newscom, Nora Tam/SCMP/Newscom, Claudia Marcelloni / CERN, World History Archive/Newscom, Ada Yonath / Weizmann Institute, Midjourney, Illustrations by Nathalie Walker

Music Credits: New World by Ian Post, Glass by Claudio Laucci