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To study inequality is to confront a world of contrasts: excessive wealth next to palpable poverty; sickness abutting health. The COVID pandemic has exposed and worsened many such disparities. This week, Nature presents a special collection of articles focusing on the researchers trying to quantify and reduce inequality.
Troubling data show how the pandemic has exacted an unequal toll, pushing tens of millions into poverty and having the greatest effects on already-disadvantaged groups.
Better data and new statistical techniques could enable researchers to measure the form of inequality that seems most harmful to society — inequality of opportunity.
The difference between the number of men and women listed as authors on scientific papers and inventors on patents is at least partly attributable to unacknowledged contributions by women scientists.
We dive into Nature’s special edition on efforts to quantify and tackle inequality around the world, and investigate why breast cancers spread more at night.
Local exposure to inequality in low-income areas is positively associated with support for a tax on wealthier individuals to address economic disparities.
Machine-learning algorithms can take advantage of survey and mobile phone data to help to identify people most in need of aid, complementing traditional methods for targeting humanitarian assistance.
An epidemiological model that integrates fine-grained mobility networks illuminates mobility-related mechanisms that contribute to higher infection rates among disadvantaged socioeconomic and racial groups, and finds that restricting maximum occupancy at locations is especially effective for curbing infections.