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. Humans

    Women faring well in academic research

    Women appear to almost be reaching parity with men in academic research.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Lab-animal allergies in office workers

    Animal allergens may escape the lab.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Pancreatic cancer linked to herbicides

    Featured blog: Some weed killers may need to be treated with more respect.

  4. Life

    The case of the disappearing fingerprints

    One potential side effect of an anti-cancer drug: identity theft.

  5. Humans

    Hand tools can pose cardiovascular risks

    Research homes in on how high frequency vibrations from power tools exert damage to blood vessels in the hands.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Industry attempts to influence medical care

    A new survey takes a national look at academic medical researchers' ties to industry and their vulnerability to undue influence.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Air pollution makes chromosomes look older

    Traffic exhaust appears to shorten telomeres, a sign of cellular aging.

  8. Humans

    Ferreting out the bottom line

    This is proving an atypical year for the federal budget — and its rollout.

  9. Humans

    An unusual budget cycle

    The first Obama budget rolled out slowly and in atypical fashion.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Undiagnosed diabetes is costly

    A new study quantifies the number of Americans who don't realize they have diabetes — and the costs they pay to deal with it.

  11. Chemistry

    BPA: On the way out? Sort of

    Half-hearted bans won't really protect babies, much less the rest of us.

  12. Psychology

    School-age lead exposures most harmful to IQ

    New studies find lead exposure has greater potency in school-age children than in infants and toddlers, including effects on brain volume.