@charliejane reminded me this morning of this wonderful quote from Stephen Jay Gould:

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

today, I think I’d add refugee camps and immigration detention to the list of places