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. Health & Medicine

    Cancer fighting green tea may have a dark side

    This herbal remedy can short-circuit one of the few useful therapies for largely incurable blood cancers.

  2. Humans

    Federal R&D downturn preceded ‘08 economic crash

    Federal R&D spending looks grim — until you compare it to the U.S. economy in general.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Melamine-tainted infant formula linked to kidney stones

    Three new studies link the melamine tainting of infant formula in China with a greatly elevated risk that babies will develop potentially dangerous, symptom-free kidney stones.

  4. Chemistry

    New money for undergraduate research

    A new program will foster interdisciplinary physical-science research at predominantly undergraduate colleges.

  5. Humans

    On Science & the Fearsome OMB

    President Obama has directed federal budget masters to put public interests first when they review proposed regulations.

  6. Chemistry

    Nonstick chemicals linked to infertility

    Featured blog: Infertility doubled in women who had high concentrations of commercially produced nonstick chemicals polluting their blood.

  7. Earth

    ‘Science fraud’ alleged in urban lead incident

    Virginia engineer charges data were buried or manipulated to hide the lead-poisoning implications to children of water contamination in the nation's capital.

  8. Earth

    Toxic Lead: Watch Out for Schools

    Schools may present the "worst case" for encountering lead-tainted water, an engineer reports finding.

  9. Earth

    Water-cleanup experiment caused lead poisoning

    Featured blog: Lead concentrations spiked in many children living in the nation's capital after the local water authority altered the treatment used to disinfect drinking water.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Overly Hungry for Frogs

    Frogs are shipped half-way round the world to sate human appetites for this lean white meat.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Darkness, melatonin may stall breast and prostate cancers

    New studies suggest strong links between melatonin and breast and prostate cancers.

  12. Earth

    EPA: Music to My Ears

    Obama's pick for EPA administrator pledges to put science first.