Well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTOR Daily.

The science of fidget spinners (Time)
by Sean Gregory
If you’ve been anywhere near a young kid lately, you probably know about fidget spinners. But what does research tell us about the gadgets’ value for helping students pay attention?

Our ominously clean windshields (Science)
by Gretchen Vogel
Maybe you remember a time when your windshield would get covered in the corpses of insects. That doesn’t happen as much anymore. Entomologists, both professional and amateur, say it’s not your imagination—bugs are disappearing.

Watergate and today (The Atlantic)
by Julian E. Zelizer and Morton Keller
How much does President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey echo Richard Nixon’s actions during Watergate? Two historians debate.

What Black English means (The New Yorker)
by Vinson Cunningham
African-American Vernacular English can do things that Standard English can’t. A new book explores why the dialect evolved as it did and what it can tell us about American culture.

Why do we neglect our sense of smell? (Vox)
by Brian Resnick
What if humans could follow a scent trail the way dogs do? It turns out we can. The science behind the human sense of smell, and why we tend to devalue it.

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.