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

    Nonstick toxicity

    By mimicking the action of estrogen, a widely used nonstick chemical promotes cancer development in animals.

  2. Chemistry

    Help the Climate: Empty the Fridge

    Yesterday, I reported that in hopes of slowing down global warming, some nations were interested in strengthening the Montreal Protocol – a United Nations treaty to curb releases of chemicals that endanger stratospheric ozone. But I didn’t really get into what they had up their sleeves. It turns out they want signatory nations to eliminate […]

  3. Climate

    When Is a Consensus on Climate Not a Consensus?

    A protein chemist reported he had assembled a list of more than 30,000 scientists who challenge the idea that human releases of greenhouse gases are warming Earth's climate.

  4. Chemistry

    Freon’s Cool Link to Climate

    Quick: What’s the name of the big UN global climate treaty? If you said the Kyoto Protocol – you’d be wrong. Because it’s a trick question. Although the Kyoto Protocol is indeed the treaty developed to address the issue of arresting global warming and the climate perturbations that will be spawned by such a growing […]

  5. Earth

    Froggie Needs a Name – and Help

    To help raise awareness about the plight of frogs and toads, which are disappearing globally, Amphibian Ark is selling formal naming rights to an unusual frog.

  6. Climate

    Boreal forests shift north

    As forests move northward and to higher elevations, they alter ecosystems and threaten to further heat the Arctic's already warming climate.

  7. Humans

    Our Heritage at Risk

    Much of the evidence documenting America's culture is at risk of being damaged or disappearing altogether.

  8. Materials Science

    Like the Nobel, Only Norwegian

    Two weeks from now, an astrophysicist, neuroscientist, and nanoscience researcher will each be named to receive $1 million Kavli Prizes.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Pollution and blood clots

    Inhaling tiny pollution particles, even at concentrations allowed in urban air, appears to increase the risk that an individual’s veins will develop potentially lethal blood clots.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Acupuncture as Placebo

    There may be some treatments for which a true placebo is unavailable.

  11. Humans

    Federal R&D Budget: On Boosts and Earmarks

    Some people have argued that science hasn’t fared well under George W. Bush. The President’s science advisor, John H. Marburger, III, begs to differ. Federal R&D spending is up big time.

  12. Humans

    Scientific Interference: Complaints At EPA

    Results from a survey of more than 1,500 EPA scientists suggest a systematic attack on scientific integrity within that agency.