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.

The intimate activism of hair care (The Conversation)
By Marva L. Lewis
For African-Americans, centuries of racism have made hair care a psychologically and socially fraught process. A researcher has found that the daily routine of caring for a child’s hair can be a time of tension and shame, or bonding that can help insulate children from external negativity.

The women behind Marx and Engels (Public Books)
By Elizabeth Carolyn Miller
When we think about socialist theory in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century, the first people to come to mind might be Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Three recent books—two biographies and a historical novel—look at the women who supported and influenced the socialist movement without gaining platforms of their own.

The language of the stars (FiveThirtyEight)
by Rebecca Boyle
When scientists talk about the characteristics of distant stars and planets, the things they can tell us come entirely from observations of light. Fortunately, there’s a remarkable amount we can learn from light alone.

Is your town healthy? Ask the sewage (Quartz)
by Zhai Yun Tan
Want to know whether people in a community are exercising enough, or how much they’re smoking? Tests conducted on the natural aggregation of human waste found in sewer systems is emerging as a tool for public health.

Does labor still matter? (The Washington Post)
by Jared Bernstein
This Labor Day, U.S. union membership is continuing its decades-long downward slide. A new study demonstrates why that matters, even to workers who’ve never been union members, and suggests potential avenues for a new progressive economic movement.

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.