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

    Diminishing Obesity’s Risks

    Mouse data suggest that, properly managed, obesity can be benign.

  2. Agriculture

    They fertilized with what?

    Fields fertilized with human urine yield bigger cabbages.

  3. Agriculture

    Web Special: You fertilized with what?

    A study shows that farmers can substitute human urine for conventional fertilizer.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Distracted? Tea might help your focus

    An amino acid in tea combines with the brew's caffeine to enliven brain cells that aid concentration.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Tea compound aids dying brain cells

    A constituent of green tea rescues brain cells damaged in a way that mimics the effect of Parkinson's disease.

  6. Earth

    Clearly Concerning

    The toxicity of a chemical that leaches from a widely used plastic receives conflicting evaluations in two new reviews.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Fattening Carbs—Some Promote Obesity and Worse

    Easily digestible carbohydrates induce obesity and liver disease in a test on rodents.

  8. Earth

    Laser printers can dirty the air

    Some laser printers emit substantial amounts of potentially hazardous nanoscale particles.

  9. Earth

    Don’t Bite the Dust

    Several studies show that children and adults accumulate substantial amounts of the flame retardants called PBDEs—from food, breast milk, and probably house dust.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Measuring Soft Drinks’ Jolt

    Researchers report what most soft-drink labels don't: how much caffeine your refreshments contain.

  11. Earth

    Cat disease associated with flame retardants

    An epidemic of hyperthyroidism in house cats may be the result of environmental exposure to certain flame retardants.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Caffeine Aids Golden Girls’ Mental Health

    Coffee and tea appear to keep aging women sharp. Men, not so much.