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. Agriculture

    Dirt Is Not Soil

    Probing the distinction in what you call the stuff that mud is made of.

  2. Agriculture

    The Good Earth

    The Smithsonian is out to share the "secrets" of soil.

  3. Chemistry

    The Goop in Our Air

    Emerging data indicate that tiny and toxic particles polluting urban air chemically morph from hour by hour, depending on what other pollutants these particles encounter during journeys that can run hundreds of miles.

  4. Chemistry

    CO2: Only One Flavor

    Federal climate policymakers should have a grounding in basic chemistry.

  5. Health & Medicine

    One Downside to Sushi

    Uncooked fish can host detectable concentrations of potentially toxic chemicals — pollutants that cooking can make disappear,

  6. Humans

    Toxic yes: Toxins? No

    Yet another news story baits us with the promise of reading about noxious toxins – and doesn't deliver.

  7. Humans

    Cars Are Learning to Drive

    Hands-free driving, truth be told, sounds very appealing.

  8. Ecosystems

    Aspiring to Save the Planet

    The failure of the G-8 Summit to put some teeth in greenhouse-gas limits suggests it may be time for a global climate czar.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Animal rights and wrongs

    Featured blog: Some animal-rights activists are taking a page out of the anti-abortionists' playbook and now bully animal researchers at home.

  10. Humans

    Data Recycling and Other No-No’s

    At least one editor argues that maintaining the ethical behavior of journal authors requires constant policing.

  11. Agriculture

    Farm life turns male toads female

    A detailed inventory of toads in Florida finds that, as land becomes more agricultural, more cane toads resemble females both inside and out.

  12. Agriculture

    Fishy Data on Weed Killer

    A popular weed killer can feminize wildlife by tinkering with a gene that indirectly affects the production of sex hormones.