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. Earth

    Contraceptive-Patch Worry: Disposal concern focuses on wildlife

    Some scientists now worry that discarded contraceptive patches may leak synthetic estrogen into the environment, potentially harming wildlife.

  2. Health & Medicine

    West Nile Worries Are No Reason to Give Up Breast-feeding

    West Nile virus infections are spreading like wildfire–and not just through bug bites. Although the vast majority of the nearly 2,800 U.S. cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) so far this year were picked up from mosquitoes, at least 3 people–and possibly 15–appear to have acquired the virus from infected […]

  3. Health & Medicine

    Calcium may become a dieter’s best friend

    Enriching the diet with calcium, especially from dairy products, can switch the body's fat cells from storing calories to burning them.

  4. Humans

    Rare animals get U.N. protection

    Several types of whales, river dolphins, the great white shark, and an unusual camel are among animals designated to receive new or heightened protection under a United Nations treaty.

  5. Health & Medicine

    FDA Launches Acrylamide Investigations

    You knew french fries and potato chips werent health foods. Sure, theyre veggies, but their deep-fat frying adds scads of fat. Depending on whos doing the cooking, that fat can be the saturated type, which can lead to clogged arteries. But until April, who could have suspected that these oh-so-yummy golden-brown spuds were also laced […]

  6. Earth

    Clipping the Fin Trade

    New research and policy developments aim to curb the wasteful and gruesome practice of killing sharks solely for their fins.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Boning up on calcium shouldn’t be sporadic

    The gains in bone health can quickly disappear when people stop taking extra calcium.

  8. Chemistry

    Hot Spuds: Golden path to acrylamide in food

    The browning reaction that imparts flavor to french fries and breads also creates acrylamide, an animal carcinogen.

  9. Chemistry

    Nutty and fungi-ble taxol sources

    The active ingredient in the anticancer drug taxol has turned up in hazelnuts and fungi.

  10. Chemistry

    Unsung benefits of darker, tasty oils

    Processing to erase the distinctive flavors and colors in cooking oils also removes or deactivates compounds that can defuse biologically damaging chemical reactions in the body.

  11. Earth

    A deadly threat in undeployed airbags

    The extremely toxic and reactive chemical used to inflate airbags could cause risks to human health and wildlife if accidentally released into the environment.

  12. Chemistry

    The power of caffeine and pale tea

    The relatively rare brew known as white tea offers more caffeine than green tea—and perhaps more anticancer activity.