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. Environment

    Old thermometers pose new problems

    Though health groups advocate getting mercury thermometers out of the home, obtaining sound advice on how to dispose of the thermometers can be problematic.

  2. Earth

    Algae Turn Fish into a Lethal Lunch

    Scientists demonstrated that some marine mammals have died from eating fish tainted with a neurotoxic diatom.

  3. Earth

    Most oil enters sea from nonaccidents

    Nearly all of the oil entering the marine environment traces not to accidents but to natural seeps and human activities where releases are intentional.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Sickening Food

    If food that was going to leave you with gut-wrenching cramps — or more — tasted  sickening, few people would indulge. The problem, of course, is that sickening food can taste quite scrumptious. Foods that look, smell, and taste yummy can still harbor disease-causing pathogens. Mead et al./Emerging Infectious Diseases Indeed, when the hour of […]

  5. Health & Medicine

    The brew for a slimmer you

    Green tea contains a compound that triggers the body to burn more fat.

  6. Antioxidants may help cancers thrive

    By curbing a natural process that rids the body of damage, antioxidant vitamins can aid cancer growth.

  7. Chemistry

    Antibiotics may become harder to resist

    Drug designers have developed new tactics to make it harder for bacteria to survive exposure to antibiotics.

  8. Health & Medicine

    E is for Effort from Athletes

    It takes a lot of energy to move the body–which is why vigorous exercise burns so many calories. However, both exercise and our body’s conversion of food to usable energy can take a physical toll on muscle. Boston researchers now find that supplementing diets with extra vitamin E can reduce not only muscle damage but […]

  9. Health & Medicine

    On Wheat and Weaning

    Prolonged breastfeeding appears to offer some babies major intestinal benefits, a new Swedish study finds. The practice prevented or at least delayed the onset of celiac disease in children. This intestinal disorder tends to run in families, especially those with a northern-European background. In the United States, roughly one in every 250 Americans develops the […]

  10. Earth

    Honey may pose hidden toxic risk

    Many honeys may contain potentially toxic traces of potent liver-damaging compounds produced naturally by a broad range of flowering plants.

  11. Health & Medicine

    A Cold Observation about Wine (with recipe)

    Show this story to your boss, and she might just offer you a glass or two of wine. After all, downing this beverage–especially the red varieties–appears to help ward off the common cold, according to a new study. Though colds usually arent dire, they remain one of the leading causes of missed days at work. […]

  12. Health & Medicine

    Could nicotine patch fight depression?

    Chronic nicotine administration blocked a symptom of depression in an animal model of the disease.