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. Tech

    Coming: Needed Protections for Science Integrity

    The Obama admistration wants to depoliticize federal science.

  2. Health & Medicine

    President reverses federal ban on stem cell funding

    President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting a ban on federal funding for research that uses embryonic stem cells.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Dangers of biomedical plagiarism

    The bogus data present in plagiarized biomedical papers is not just an ethical lapse, but also a threat to effective medicine.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Study finds plenty of apparent plagiarism

    Featured blog: A data-mining program looks for and finds plagiarism among scientific papers. The researchers survey the papers' writers and editors.

  5. Physics

    Science Stimulus

    Researchers look to the new administration to bring fresh perspectives to health, energy, climate policy and science funding.

  6. Climate

    Obama’s budget would boost science

    Featured blog: Here's a preview of what science programs the Obama administration plans to push in the coming year's federal budget.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Women: How bad is a regular nip?

    Featured blog: A new study on alcohol and cancer deserves to be interpreted with a bit of caution.

  8. Humans

    DOE wants to become more like Bell Labs

    Steven Chus prizes DOE's research prowess, but not it's ability to marshall its discoveries into marketable innovations.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Sunshine vitamin diminishes risk of colds, flu

    A study of nearly 19,000 adults shows that people with low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop colds, flu and pneumonia.

  10. Tech

    Catalyst knocks out a smog maker

    Unique system could help truckers meet new emissions standards.

  11. Agriculture

    Where do you eat?

    Here's proof that we spend too much time mindlessly consuming food.

  12. Tech

    Stimulus: Substantial money for research infrastructure

    Two agencies will share more than $1.25 billion to upgrade research equipment and facilities around the nation.