Extra Credit: Our pick of stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTOR Daily.
Yes, trade deals have victims (The Atlantic)
By Gillian B. White
Conventional economic wisdom holds that free trade is good for just about everyone. But a new study finds that hasn’t panned out when it comes to the huge influx of Chinese goods into the U.S. in recent decades.
Those ancient Babylonian math geniuses (Pacific Standard)
by Nathan Collins
A new study of ancient Babylonian tablets reveals the sophisticated mathematical tools that apparently let their astronomers calculate Jupiter’s motion across the sky 14 centuries before European mathematicians figured it out.
Making peer review work (The Scholarly Kitchen)
by David Crotty
Everyone in academia knows peer review is important. But what’s the best way to get busy researchers to participate in the process? To answer the question, we need to think about the complementary—and competing—interests of universities, academic journals, and individual researchers.
Before antibiotics: bloodletting (The Conversation)
by Cristie Columbus
Before antibiotics, doctors and other healers used a lot of different methods to treat infections, including bloodletting, injecting patients with mercury, and mixing up various concoctions of herbs and tree bark. The methods varied in effectiveness—and side effects—and they remind us just how important it is to keep antibiotics from losing their power today.
The value of workplace frenemies (New York Magazine)
By Abraham Riesman and Melissa Dahl
You know that coworker who sometimes drive you nuts, even though they’re a pretty OK person? They may help you succeed more than you realize. This short animated video explains the research.
Have you seen a story online that does a good job of bridging the gap between the news and scholarship? Or something that seems particularly well-researched? Let us know and we may include it in next week’s roundup. Email us at jstordaily_submissions (at) jstor (dot) org.
