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

    Real News: An Endangered Species

    Forget Black Monday. What will happen now that it's beome a Black Year for news reporters at papers and other conventional media?

  2. Earth

    Toxicologist to Become an NIH Director

    A new director — equal parts scientist and communicator — will take over environmental-health agency.

  3. Chemistry

    Nanosilver disinfects — but at what price?

    Silver demonstrates some unusual immunological impacts at the nanoscale.

  4. Earth

    Marine pollution spawns ‘wonky babies’

    Featured blog: Pollutants at sea can slow critters' sperm or induce DNA damage.

  5. Earth

    Antidepressants make for sad fish

    Fish may suffer substantially from even brief encounters with antidepressants, which wastewater releases into river water.

  6. Humans

    Is Your Fish Oil Polluted?

    Clues to gauging the likely purity of fish-oil capsules.

  7. Humans

    When Not to Flush

    Toilets are not where we should be disposing of unwanted medicines.

  8. Earth

    Antidepressants Aren’t for Fish

    Antidepressants can play potentially dangerous mind games with fish.

  9. Humans

    What an Acid Bath!

    One fallout of space shuttle launches can be a transient change in water pH.

  10. Earth

    It’s Night: Why’s It So Light?

    We're wasting scads of energy while much of the world sleeps.

  11. Humans

    College: It’s What We Make It

    College experiences differ more within than between colleges, a new survey reports.

  12. Ecosystems

    Costs of Choked-Up Waters

    Scientists tally the economic toll of fertilizing pollutants on water quality.