Janet Raloff

Janet Raloff

Editor, Digital, Science News Explores

Editor Janet Raloff has been a part of the Science News Media Group since 1977. While a staff writer at Science News, she covered the environment, toxicology, energy, science policy, agriculture and nutrition. She was among the first to give national visibility to such issues as electromagnetic pulse weaponry and hormone-mimicking pollutants, and was the first anywhere to report on the widespread tainting of streams and groundwater sources with pharmaceuticals. A founding board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, her writing has won awards from groups including the National Association of Science Writers. In July 2007, while still writing for Science News, Janet took over Science News Explores (then known as Science News for Kids) as a part-time responsibility. Over the next six years, she expanded the magazine's depth, breadth and publication cycle. Since 2013, she also oversaw an expansion of its staffing from three part-timers to a full-time staff of four and a freelance staff of some 35 other writers and editors. Before joining Science News, Janet was managing editor of Energy Research Reports (outside Boston), a staff writer at Chemistry (an American Chemical Society magazine) and a writer/editor for Chicago's Adler Planetarium. Initially an astronomy major, she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (with an elective major in physics).

All Stories by Janet Raloff

  1. Health & Medicine

    Two studies offer some cell-phone cautions

    A British review of research gave cell-phone safety a guarded endorsement, while new findings indicate that radiation from older cell phones can trigger a stress-response gene, at least in animals.

  2. Earth

    More Frog Trouble: Herbicides may emasculate wild males

    New studies of male frogs in the wild link trace exposures to common weed killers with partial sex reversal.

  3. Soy, tea, and cancer benefits

    Animal studies indicate that enriching diets with soy and tea fights cancer better than adding either alone.

  4. Are some fats more filling?

    Substituting monounsaturated fats for polyunsaturated ones in cooking may hold hunger at bay longer.

  5. Diabetes drug cures infertility and more

    A common diabetes drug helps treat obesity and cure the infertility associated with polycystic ovary disease—even in people without diabetes.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Sweet news about ginseng

    When taken before or with meals, ginseng appears to help people with diabetes control the normal rise in blood sugar that accompanies eating.

  7. Agriculture

    Downtown Fisheries?

    Advances may make fish farming a healthy prospect, even for inner cities.

  8. Earth

    U.S. smog limit permits subtle lung damage

    Ambient concentrations of smog ozone in many regions can cause lungs to leak, potentially compromising the health of even robust people.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Distressing Gut Symptoms May Trace to Sweets

    U.S. diners are notorious for having a sweet tooth. It’s hard not to succumb to the pervasive siren calls of sugary confections. Television commercials bombard viewers with enticements for presweetened cereals, breakfast bars, sugar-laden soda pop, and fruit-flavored beverages–many containing, at best, only about 10 percent real juice. Grocery stores seduce consumers with aisle after […]

  10. Health & Medicine

    A different GI link to colon cancers

    Diets rich in sweets and other quickly digested carbohydrates appear to increase an individual's risk of developing colon cancer.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Berry promising anticancer prospects

    Cranberry products can retard the growth and spread of breast cancer in rodents.

  12. Tech

    Civilians get better GPS

    President Clinton directed the Defense Department to stop degrading signals from 24 Global Positioning System satellites, allowing civilians to receive the same location-pinpointing accuracy long available to the U.S. military.