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

    A hundred new nukes?

    Here are some issues to contemplate while deciding whether to welcome the nuclear-power renaissance that Sen. Alexander has just proposed.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Migraines vs. breast cancer

  3. Humans

    What’s in your bottled water?

    A congressional hearing found bottled-water quality is not regulated as strictly as tap water is.

  4. Life

    Collins nominated to head NIH

    The chemist — turned physician, turned geneticist — has a spiritual side as well.

  5. Humans

    Court backs EPA on controlling airborne particles

    Upwind polluters can be held responsible for contributing to downwinders' violations of air-pollution standards.

  6. Animals

    Megafish Sleuth: No Steve Irwin

    There's no reason a scientist can't be an action hero — even if his damsels in distress have fins.

  7. Earth

    Monster stingrays: Field notes from a global wrangler

    A megafish biologist shares what he's learning about a rare freshwater species.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Bad Breath

    New studies detail how the invisible particles that pollute the air can damage heart, lungs and genetic programming.

  9. Chemistry

    Concerns over bisphenol A continue to grow

    Recent research finds that the hormone mimic may be more prevalent and more harmful than previously thought, highlighting why BPA is a growing worry for policy makers.

  10. Science & Society

    Become a guinea pig

    Three NIH researchers argue it should be considered a duty with a social mandate akin to voting.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Plastics ingredients may shrink babies

    A new study links phthalates, one of the more ubiquitous families of pollutants, with a baby being dangerously small at birth.

  12. Earth

    How killer whales are like people

    Killer whales may be sentinels for toxic chemicals accumulating in even landlubbers.