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. Ecosystems

    Wanted: Reef Cleaners

    Nearly 18 years after a near total die-off of algae-grazing urchins in the Caribbean, those herbivores are poised for a comeback—which could help save area corals.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Germ-Fighting Germs

    Plants and animals arent the only things that get sick. Even pathogenic microbes can succumb to infections. Federal plant pathologists are now looking to capitalize on that phenomenon as a strategy to fight off food poisoning. R. Savidge Though nature seals most fruits and vegetables in germ-resistant peels and rinds, once those outer barriers are […]

  3. Health & Medicine

    Antioxidants + heart drugs = bad medicine?

    Taking dietary antioxidant supplements along with certain cholesterol-regulating drugs may diminish the effectiveness of those drugs in boosting the so-called good cholesterol.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Drink Those Antioxidants

    Mention antioxidants and most people will immediately think of vitamins–typically C and E–usually in the form of mega-dose capsules available at the local drug store. However, a new study finds that many common beverages also deliver a healthy antioxidant serving. R. Savidge These beverages may give some protection against the ravages of oxidizing chemicals that […]

  5. Earth

    Climate accord reached

    Negotiators, without U.S. representatives' input, resolved controversies in Bonn that were blocking an international treaty to limit greenhouse gases.

  6. Earth

    Power Harvests

    Farmers are finding that commercial wind power is the best new commodity to come along in years, one that can offer substantial year-round income.

  7. Health & Medicine

    A Brew for Teeth—and the Rest of You

    Globally, in terms of its popularity as a drink, tea ranks second only to water. While most people began sipping this brew for its taste and its ability to sooth the palate, researchers have recently turned up a variety of reasons to reinforce tea-quaffing habits. The newest: It slows the growth of germs that lead […]

  8. A bad month for condors

    Two California condors in the wild—a hatching and a just-released juvenile—died the same week, as a third went missing.

  9. Earth

    Landfills Make Mercury More Toxic

    Landfill disposal of mercury-containing products can chemically transform the pollutant not only to make it more potent but also to foster its release into air.

  10. Earth

    A foamy threat to ozone

    Shredding the foam insulation in discarded refrigerators can release significant quantities of chlorofluorocarbons, which pose a threat to Earth's protective ozone layer.

  11. Earth

    Blood points to pollution’s heart risks

    As airborne concentrations of fine dust particles climb, so do three blood factors that increase an individual's heart attack risk.

  12. Animals

    Condor chicks hatch in zoo and wild

    Newly hatched California condor chicks indicate that reproduction is again taking place in the wild.