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

    Prostate protection? This is fishy

    Diets rich in fish may cut a man's risk of prostate cancer.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Tofu May Get the Lead Out

    Lead, a toxic heavy metal, can show up in the most unexpected places. For instance, several recent studies documented a worrisome tainting of calcium supplements. Just last month, some Mexican lollipops were recalled from U.S. stores upon a finding that their wrappers had leached lead into the candy. And recently, this column recounted the perils […]

  3. Health & Medicine

    Studies suggest how salad may protect heart

    Lutein, a yellow pigment in many fruits and vegetables, may inhibit processes that jump-start the development of atherosclerosis.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Coming to Terms with Death

    Some newly recognized forms of cell death might be harnessed to aid people with cancer and other serious diseases.

  5. Earth

    Memory problems linked to PCBs in fish

    Adult exposures to polychlorinated biphenyls, from eating tainted fish, correlate with lower scores on learning and memorization tasks.

  6. Endangered condors lay first eggs in wild

    A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist has spied a trio of California condors, released to the wild from captive-breeding programs sometime over the past 6 years, attending a pair of eggs.

  7. Earth

    Allergic to computing?

    Over the years, many studies have linked skin rashes in some people to working long hours at personal computers. A Swedish study now finds a possible explanation: Certain computer monitors emit a chemical that can cause allergic reactions. Three years ago, while analyzing pollution in samples of outdoor air, Conny Östman and his colleagues at […]

  8. Undercooking makes germs strong

    Precooking servings to sublethal temperatures before the final cooking actually makes germ killing more difficult.

  9. Earth

    Nations sign on to persistent-pollutants ban

    The United States joined 126 other nations in signing a treaty to ban or phase out a dozen persistent and toxic pollutants.

  10. Earth

    Salmon hatcheries can deplete wild stocks

    Hatchery fish appear to be replacing wild salmon populations in the Columbia River.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Dietary protection against sunburn (with recipe)

    Nothing tastes more like summer, to this inveterate gardener, than a home-grown, vine-ripened tomato. As a child, on a sweltering August afternoon, I used to swipe one from our garden to nibble slowly in the backyard. Or Id share a bright red Beefsteak with mom. Slathered with mayonnaise and nestled on a bed of lettuce […]

  12. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotic resistance is coming to dinner

    Foods tainted with bacteria that antibiotics don't kill are a recipe for more serious—even lethal—infections.