Starre Julia Vartan

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…

An assignment to cover how monitors for CO2 (as a proxy for covid) and smoke and pollutants delves into the detail of how we are all starting to care more about the air we breathe—and want to track it. Read the full article here.

What a joy to cover this incredible research from the University of Washington and Conservation Canines for CNN. I love dogs, I grew up with them, and I even run walk and run them today as part of my work as a dog-walker on the island where I live. The canines who sniff out orca…

I worked on this project for Undark with fellow science journalist Jenny Morber for more than 6 months. It was a challenge, as we dug into government archives, spoke with scientists about emotionally fraught situations, and endeavored to tell their stories with integrity.

I had no idea how researchers like Terrie Williams determine the metabolic rates of animals before I spoke with her for The Physiologist magazine. You put them on treadmills. Turns out it’s tricky work, but someone has to do it: How do you get a polar bear to walk on a treadmill? That’s a very…