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Starre Vartan

@starrevartan.bsky.social

540 followers 230 following 860 posts

🧬 Science Journo| 🏺 Sculptor of ceramics & words 📖 Author: The Stronger Sex (Seal Press/Hachette, 2025) 🌊 Wild swimmer | 💃 Ecstatic Dancer | 🌍 Trailrunner 🇦🇺🇺🇸 dual citizen Bylines: Nat Geo, Undark, SciAm (+ pods), my book 👇 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/ye7nrwp7

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · Jul 15

Its my pub day! You can now get my book everywhere is the US & Canada! (UK, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea coming soon). Order it to join in on a celebration of the female body's strength!

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 5h

OK, thanks! Yeah, i don't have a huge network yet but I have a few thousand across channels and you have to start somewhere! I'd much prefer to use Ghost as long as it works. Is there a referral code or anything to share or do they not do that?

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 6h

I guess my biggest question is do you think it hurts you to be out of the main newsletter network or does it not matter than much? Substack is a whole little world. But also they suck, I know.

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 6h

Aw geez, sigh, I hadn't even thought of that. Yes, that's what my former site is on. Hmmmmm.....(also haha on crossing the streams! Gotta keep that Stay Puft guy outta here)

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 6h

Thanks! I was a blogger for over a decade, so I was actually thinking of reviving my old site and renaming it...but not sure if I should start afresh or not....

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 6h

No! I would like to avoid substack but it's very enticing.

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 6h

Hypothermia! Had it once, wouldn't recommend. But it has neuroprotective capacities, and lots of other great info in this fascinating paper.

Communications Biology @commsbio.nature.com · 8h

How do mammalian cells adapt to cold? 🐻 ❄️ 🐿️ Read more in this new Communications Biology review about the various adaptation strategies used by cells - from ion channels to epigenetics and learn from hibernators about therapeutic approaches in metabolism and neuroprotection.
doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Molecular mediators of cold adaptation in mammalian cells - Communications Biology

This review outlines how mammalian cells adapt to cold via ion channels, uncoupling proteins, epigenetic changes, and RNA-binding proteins, with insights from hibernators highlighting therapeutic pote...

doi.org

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 7h

OK, I'm doing the Newsletter Thing. I have essays I'm dying to write! And I'm going to put them up on a website too. I think there's a name for that? A blog or something? :) Any advice appreciated!!

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 7h

OK, as a former Episcopalian this cracks me UP!!!

Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 1d

you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you

Screenshot of a Facebook post featuring three of the Portland protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes with the following text:

Episcopalians on Facebook
Elizabeth Rose Elrod • 22h •
Exodus 8:2-6
"But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs...
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

Reposted by Starre Vartan

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 17h

Solidarity is the only way

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 1d

It's time again for Nerd Book Club! Join me at 6pm US ET on Weds 22 October to hear from @starrevartan.bsky.social about her excellent new book THE STRONGER SEX: WHAT SCIENCE TELLS US ABOUT THE POWER OF THE FEMALE BODY. RSVP here for livestream links: humanhealth.emory.edu/events/livin...

A horizontal white card with tan borders top and bottom shows a red book cover with white lettering and an image of a woman leaping over the letters, and the headshots of two white women, a red-haired woman in a black and white top and an auburn-haired woman in a black jacket. The rest of the information on the card is duplicated in the post text.

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Michelle W. Martin @michellem.bsky.social · 1d

Not my books, but can recommend these great books: The Stronger Sex by @starrevartan.bsky.social (www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...) and a poetry book called An Introduction to Error by Deirdre Lockwood (www.deirdrelockwood.com/book)

THE STRONGER SEX | Kirkus Reviews

The science of what makes men and women different.

www.kirkusreviews.com

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 1d

Really comprehensive reporting here. Glad I never jumped on the protein bandwagon (been vegetarian for 30 years, lift weights, have plenty of muscle at my 60 grams or so a day!) If you want protein in your smoothie, throw in a handful of nuts!

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 2d

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 1d

Haha! Just what I was thinking, in visuals.

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 1d

I saw this story on TikTok and thankfully @jessicavalenti.bsky.social covered it in full on her newsletter. This woman lives in a Blue State and was denied care!

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 1d

“Please someone listen to me, I don’t want to die”

These are the words of a woman named Harmonie who had an ectopic pregnancy

Her obgyn refused to help, citing a
1% chance the fetus could survive

She lives in a blue state & still couldn’t access the life saving care she needed

Illinois Woman Denied Treatment for Ectopic Pregnancy

10.14.25

open.substack.com

Reposted by Starre Vartan

Emory Human Health @emorycshh.bsky.social · 2d

Next Up on @marynmck.bsky.social's Health Storytelling LIVE Author Q&A series... @starrevartan.bsky.social, author of The Stronger Sex, What Science Tells Us About the Power of the Female Body.

We hope you will join us on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 6pm ET, on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ759jdlDwA

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 2d

Solidarity is the only way

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 3d

So if you want to read the excellent, full piece on Republican Beauty Standards it's now only available on the Wayback Machine b/c someone pressured MarieClaire UK to pull the piece and heavily edit it. Now even our BEAUTY COVERAGE in THE UK is being censored!!! WTF. web.archive.org/web/20251005...

The MAGA Beauty Aesthetic Tells the Story of America Today

In Trump’s circle, performing femininity is a strategy

web.archive.org

Reposted by Starre Vartan

bioGraphic @biographic.bsky.social · 7d

In case you missed it: we are hard at work on a deep dive into how the Trump Administration's policies are affecting biodiversity.

bioGraphic's news editor, @colinschultz.bsky.social, wants to know: what do you, our readers, want to know more about this topic? What questions do you have?

Colin Schultz @colinschultz.bsky.social · 10d

1/ 🧪🍃🐙📰 We @biographic.bsky.social have been hard at work for the past 8 months developing a deep, rich, behind-the-scenes feature story exploring how the Trump Administration's cuts to international conservation are affecting biodiversity on the ground.

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 6d

OK, thanks. I'm wondering if there's a pattern here at all....since this seems to have happened a few times to others including you and I've never heard of this before. I'm already nervous enough flying into/out of the US.

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 7d

ahahahahahaha!

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 7d

I love it when academics publish papers that are like, "I checked and I'm still right"
www.jstor.org/stable/24393...

In this paper I review research since 2000 and conclude
that it has vindicated this view

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 7d

The petition for Rodney Taylor, a disabled double amputee being held in an ICE camp, is over 3300 signatures!

Rodney has been in the US since he was 2 years old.

He was days away from receiving new prosthetic legs when ICE grabbed him.

He’s in solitary confinement & facing deportation to Liberia

Help Rodney Taylor, a Disabled Double Amputee Being Held by ICE

Rodney has been in the country more than 40 years. He's in solitary confinement in Georgia, being denied disability accommodations and having his medical needs ignored. He must be released.

www.disabledginger.com

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 7d

And what kind of work does your wife do? (in general)? I'm asking these questions as a dual citizen who travels in/out of the US and I'm concerned about not being able to get back to Australia when I need to.

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Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 7d

Were you leaving the US?

Starre Vartan @starrevartan.bsky.social · 7d

Was this in the US?

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 9d

I've been working on a book proposal and alternating between "this is meaningful" and "this is pointless," and a friend recently shared this quote that she stumble on in a Goodreads review: "Every book is a grand gesture of optimism on the part of both the reader and writer." Keep creating, friends.

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