Starre Julia Vartan

Co-conceived and written with fellow science-writer Jenny Morber, this piece was a full year in the making. Jenny and I researched what didn’t work to prevent sexual harassment in the field sciences (pretty much everything we currently do) and what concrete, evidence-based actions could change that in the future. This was a difficult piece to…

I tackled a tough assignment for SciAm that required me to learn the ins and outs of optical frequency combs and dig deep into my physics knowledge to explain it in plain language. Thanks to the patience of my SciAm editor, I finally got it after a few rounds! Explaining complexity simply is one of…

I’d always been curious about the science behind being the last of my line on my father’s side. I explore the genetics and my feelings about it in this essay for Psyche, part of Aeon Magazine. So, when I end my family line, unless I have a totally new, unique mutation that will then disappear…

I wrote about the fascinating subject of biosensors for Grow Magazine, exploring how they can be used to track and quantify the impacts of climate change. What ARE biosensors? Great question: “Akin to a filmmakers’ zoom lens, they allow scientists to get just the information they want from a given environment, whether that’s the human…

One of the keys to Darwin’s theory of Sexual Selection was that male mammals are always larger. But, it turns out they’re not, as I reported on for New Scientist. Researcher Kaia Tombak at Hunter College in New York found this out when she took the time to measure hundreds of mammal species using the…

I’m excited to share that I’m working on a new book, via Seal Press (an imprint of Hachette Books).

Enjoyed reporting on how psychedelics may affect women differently, what work needs to be done by scientists going forward in this area, and share the good news that, so far, women aren’t being left out of this work, either as clinical subjects or researchers. My first piece for Dame Magazine!

I was thrilled to share my (untrained, totally self-created) dance habit with readers because it helped me through the depths of the pandemic stress and I hope it can inspire others. I was NOT expecting to have my editor like it so much that she commissioned a photoshoot for it! Many thanks to Stuart Isett,…

This story was a year in the making, and a significant challenge but about such an important subject: fighting elephant ivory trafficking. Sam Wasser at the University of Washington developed a new way to track trafficked ivory based on the same DNA technique that was used to catch the Golden State Killer: Familial DNA matching.…

This article started with a simple query as someone who lives in a smoke-inundated-in-the-summer place: I’m told to stay inside and use an air purifier when the wildfire smoke descends. But what about all the wild animals? Turns out a researcher at the University of Washington had a similar question—she gathered all the currently available…