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. Climate

    Giant snakes warming to U.S. climes

    Some were pets whose bodies and appetites apparently got too big for their owners to support. Most are probably descendants of released pets. Today, thousands of really big non-native snakes — we’re talking boa constrictors, anacondas and pythons — slither wild in southern Florida. And there’s nothing holding them in the Sunshine State. Which is why a report that was released today contends they pose moderate to high ecological threats to states on three U.S. coasts. Indeed, the homelands of these snakes share climatic features with large portions of the United States — territory currently inhabited by some 120 million Americans. Based on comparisons of the temperatures, rainfall and land cover found in the snakes’ native range, it’s possible that these slithering behemoths could stake claims to territory as far north as coastal Delaware and Oregon.

  2. Chemistry

    Bad perfume: Cardboard’s intense scents

    Wet cardboard and food should not share the same air space.

  3. Planetary Science

    Award named for late Science News writer

    Jonathan Eberhart's name lives on in a new planetary-sciences award.

  4. Chemistry

    Concerned about BPA: Check your receipts

    Some cash register receipts offer the potential for relatively large exposures to an estrogen mimic.

  5. Earth

    BPA in the womb shows link to kids’ behavior

    Subtle gender-linked effects seen in youngsters mirror impacts witnessed earlier in rodents.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Measuring citations: Calculations can vary widely

    Depending on how citation tallies will be used, it may pay to cherry pick the appropriate counting house.

  7. Humans

    Flu: Grim stats

    Though risk of death from conventional flu strains escalates dramatically, beginning around age 45, a new study finds that masks do a fair job of slowing the infection's transmission.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Excreted Tamiflu found in rivers

    A Japanese study finds that excreted Tamiflu ends up in river water, raising concerns that birds hosting a flu virus will develop drug-resistant strains.

  9. EPA’s nanotoxicity research blueprint

    A blueprint for federal research on the potential health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials debuted today.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Obesity epidemic may threaten mitten industry

    Hot fingers: That appears to be one consequence of big bodies.

  11. Humans

    Schools need to test water, report results

    Survey of EPA database turn up widespread problems, which may be only the tip of the iceberg.

  12. Earth

    Protected whales found in Japan’s supermarkets

    Toothless Asian whales find themselves being protected by fairly toothless regulations.