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

    Obama pledges 3 percent of GDP for research

    BLOG: Highlights of what the president announced to the National Academy of Sciences.

  2. Obama redoubles push to improve science education

    To counter unimpressive student achievement in science and math, the president calls for more engagement by schools and research professionals.

  3. Physics

    Obama pledges 3 percent of GDP for research

    Pledges for big budget increases for research, permanent tax credits for reseach by industry and more were announced today.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Obama on the swine flu epidemic

    New swine flu is "cause for concern," the President acknowledged this morning.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Birth control pills can limit muscle-training gains

    Mildly 'androgenic' hormones in some birth-control pills appear to sabotage strength-building exercise.

  6. Humans

    ED in women: Drugs for men might not help

    Women can experience sexual dysfunction just as men can — and for much the same reason — but the little blue pill will likely not solve the problem, new animal data suggest.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Mom’s exercise helps fetal lungs mature

    Cardiovascular exercise appears to benefit both mom and the baby she's carrying.

  8. Agriculture

    News from Experimental Biology

    Senior editor Janet Raloff blogs from the 2009 meeting gathering dozens of societies together in New Orleans

  9. Health & Medicine

    Coming: Ersatz calorie restriction

    Avocados may hold a key to longer, better health.

  10. Humans

    Apple a day may keep cardiologists away

    Nutrition scientists think apples might replace some drugs as a way of limiting heart disease.

  11. Health & Medicine

    To limit sweet indulgences, chew, chew, chew

    A new study suggests chewing gum might serve as a potential diet aid.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Counterintuitive nutrition findings

    Sometimes data don't confirm what we expected.