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

    Perchlorate: A Saga Continues

    Perchlorate is not yet a household word in many parts of the country. But it may becomes one if Sen. Barbara Boxer has her way. Perchlorate – an ingredient in solid rocket fuel, fireworks, flares and explosives – taints drinking-water supplies around the nation, not to mention plenty of foods. In animal tests, the pollutant […]

  2. Agriculture

    Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock

    With Uncle Sam pushing the production of ethanol for fuel, U.S. farmers are planting more corn than at any time since World War II, and garnering premium prices for each harvested bushel. But many livestock operations are getting hit with a double whammy: higher feeds costs and corn-derived feed that’s carrying triple the normal load of fungal poisons.

  3. Earth

    Babbitt to Southern Louisiana: Look into Gondolas

    “New Orleans, at the end of the century, will be an island” — literally, predicts Bruce Babbitt. Whether or not you believe his assessment, he makes a good case for considering the implications of climate change when planning federal projects.

  4. Climate

    Air Pollution Can Be So Cool — ing

    Fossil-fuel pollution has been offsetting global warming to the tune of about 30 percent per year. Cleaning up that pollution, a must, threatens to accelerate warming unless humanity changes its fuel-use strategy.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Rice Woes, Pt. 1

    A shortfall in rice production has been developing well under the radar screen of agricultural economists and growers. The bad news: It promises to get much worse, and fairly soon.

  6. Climate

    Olympic Clean Up

    Rather than wowing its visitors this summer with world-class air pollution, China wants to impress them with its clean, green Olympics.

  7. Humans

    A Proposed NSF for Innovation

    Researchers with the Brookings Institution have just published a blueprint for tackling what they perceive as a brewing innovation crisis. They propose that Uncle Sam create a federal agency to focus squarely on helping home-grown companies increase their innovation, productivity and profitability.

  8. Ecosystems

    Building Homes Where the Buffalo Roamed

    A new study finds that being environmentally conscious is no guarantee you’ll put your home where you mouth is.

  9. Humans

    The Return of EPA’s Libraries

    After mothballing five libraries as a purported cost-cutting gesture, the agency is now responding to congressional prodding and unboxing its books.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Triggering autoimmune assaults

    Mouth bacteria unleash inflammation-inducing protein

  11. Health & Medicine

    Micro-strokes mimic Alzheimer’s Disease

    Microscopic drops in blood flow to the brain may cause half of all dementia cases, a new study finds.

  12. Agriculture

    Polluted Scents

    Insects and Bats May Face Confusion.