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

    Toxic runoff from plastic mulch

    By laying sheets of plastic across their fields, farmers can bring crops to market faster while reducing their vulnerability to many blights (SN: 12/13/97, p. 376). On the negative side, however, this polymer mulch creates impermeable surfaces over more than half of a planted field. That significantly increases the amount of rain and pesticides that […]

  2. Health & Medicine

    Boosting Boron Could Be Healthful

    Largely ignored so far, dietary boron may play important roles in preventing diseases such as arthritis and prostate cancer.

  3. Gene therapy won’t replace Viagra—yet

    Scientists are making progress toward inserting genes to cure impotence temporarily.

  4. Looking for osteoporosis in spit

    A dentist has found three compounds in saliva that could be used to gauge bone loss.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin E targets dangerous inflammation

    People with diabetes face a high risk of heart attack and stroke. One apparent culprit is the chronic, low-grade inflammation that they develop. Megadoses of vitamin E can dramatically reduce that inflammation, a new study finds. Ishwarlal Jialal and Sridevi Devaraj of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas studied 47 men and […]

  6. Tech

    Optical biopsy hunts would-be cancers

    A new optical tool allows physicians to scout for precancerous tissue by analyzing the fluorescent responses of cells when light is shone on them.

  7. Earth

    Oops! Tougher arsenic rule retracted

    The new EPA administrator has delayed by 60 days the implementation of a final rule issued by the Clinton administration lowering the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water.

  8. Earth

    How polluted we are

    Most people carry traces of toxic pollutiants, including metals, pesticides, and phthalates.

  9. Health & Medicine

    A different GI link to colon cancers

    As they head for the stomach from the mouth, the carbohydrates in vegetables, breads, fruits, and candy all begin breaking down into simple sugars. According to some studies, carbs with a low glycemic index (GI)–meaning that they are digested slowly–reduce a persons risk of heart disease and obesity through an as yet unidentified mechanism linked […]

  10. Earth

    POPs in the butter

    Governments may be able to monitor trends in the release and transport of persistent organic pollutants by sampling butter.

  11. Earth

    Leaden calcium supplements

    Consuming calcium along with lead limits, and may prevent, the body's absorption of the toxicant.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Chocolate-science news

    Make no mistake: Chocolate is not a health food. Indeed, most portions are loaded with empty calories from sugar and saturated fats. Hershey Foods Corp. Several studies in recent years, however, have demonstrated that among sweets, chocolate may possess a few nutritional advantages over most calorie-rich alternatives. The latest of these good-news findings is a […]