"Nature Editorial: Socio-economic inequality in science is on the rise"

"The good news is that science is keeping up with modern trends. The bad news is that trend seems to be towards wider inequality, fewer opportunities for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds and a subsequent smaller pool of people and talent for research to draw on. From the United Kingdom and Japan to the United States and India, the story is alarmingly consistent. In many places, careers in science tend to go to the children of families who belong to the higher socio-economic groups.

There are various reasons for this, and many of them are explored in the pages that follow. The problem is complex, but one of its implications is stark. Unlike many other sectors of society and the economy that rightly draw fire for a lack of social mobility, science relies heavily — almost exclusively in some places — on public money. If the research system is soaking up billions of pounds and dollars and yen from taxpayers merely to hand a subsidy to an already privileged sub-section of society — cementing their advantage in the process — then in no way can that system be described as positive for human welfare, however noble its goals...

So how can we make science more accessible to all those who would like to get into it? There are echoes here of the ongoing struggle for equality for women scientists and for greater representation of ethic minorities in places such as the United States. And some of the same measures used to rectify inequality in those cases can be copied to stem economically based bias. Indeed, some — such as social inclusion schemes in Brazil — may already be bearing fruit. Active intervention to identify and encourage those being excluded, with the support of institutions and funders, seems to be crucial."

http://www.nature.com/news/socio-economic-inequality-in-science-is-on-the-rise-1.20654?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20160922&spMailingID=52357585&spUserID=MTA3NDk2MzQzMzM2S0&spJobID=1003755044&spReportId=MTAwMzc1NTA0NAS2

valid and accurate. Science considers itself a meritocracy but at the same time a class unto itself: The Scientist vs. the "Citizen"/"Layperson"; our own subsociety that exists apart from the regular hierarchies and rules. And, perhaps, there may exist a meritocracy amongst the people who are considered to be members of that subsociety, but there are many unwritten rules and larger systemic realities that limit the subsociety-members to specific kinds of people.