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, McCain Shun Science at the Podium

    The presidential candidates have pledged to respond to science questions in a virtual debate.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Nanomagnets tackle cancer

    Under the influence of an external magnetic field, tiny magnets act as highly localized space heaters, warming to temperatures that kill adjacent cancer cells.

  3. Earth

    TV Take-Backs

    Here's one solution for all of the conventional TVs that will be cast off during the imminent digital-TV transition.

  4. Climate

    A Fairy Tale: Cheap Gas

    Lawmakers are looking for an answer on how to lower the price of gasoline: That's the wrong question.

  5. Climate

    IPCC Lite

    A new primer on climate change is slim and trim.

  6. Climate

    Trade affects China’s carbon footprint

    Featured blog: Goods exported from China to the United States and elsewhere account for a huge share of the Asian behemoth's emissions of greenhouse gases.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Costly Health Care Mistakes

    Medical malpractice that many of us won’t recognize as such — or be able to prove — remains too high.

  8. Earth

    EPA Gagged

    Federal officials have been told not to talk freely to the press or others who might ask questions EPA doesn't want to answer.

  9. Health & Medicine

    This trans fat is vindicated

    Featured blog: FDA accords some trans fats a "generally regarded as safe" designation.

  10. Chemistry

    Oil magnets

    Featured blog: Nanomagnets and wires point to a potentially better mousetrap — or crude trap — for dealing with oil spills.

  11. Fish Don’t Like DC’s Water

    Chloramine and fish shouldn't mix.

  12. Ecosystems

    Fish Houses

    Tanked half-way houses allow people and fish to get acquainted on their own terms — and exhibit their individual personalities.