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. Chemistry

    Enzymes release caged chemicals

    A new controlled-release technology relies on enzymes to unshackle a chemical only when and where it's needed.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Crusty Chemistry

    Chemists report simple ways to tweak the recipe and make a whole wheat pizza crust potentially healthier.

  3. Earth

    New solutions for unused drugs

    Pharmacists and federal scientists have launched a program to discourage consumers from flushing unused prescription drugs down the toilet.

  4. Earth

    Pollution Fallout: Are unattractive males Great-gram’s fault?

    Pollutant exposures in rodents can have behavioral repercussions that persist generation after generation.

  5. Humans

    Chasing money for science

    Stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health is forcing scientists to downsize their labs and abandon some of their most promising work.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Planting the Seeds for Folate Enrichment

    Florida scientists have engineered tomatoes with 20 times the ordinary amount of folate, making them the most concentrated source of this important vitamin ever measured.

  7. Animals

    It’s a Girl: Atlantic mystery squid undergoes scrutiny

    To scientists' surprise, a huge, deep-sea, gelatinous squid formerly reported only in the Pacific Ocean has turned up half a world away.

  8. Agriculture

    Herbal Herbicides

    Scientists are tapping plants, and the self-defense chemicals they make, for new weed killers, many of which may find use in organic farming.

  9. Body clock affects racing prowess

    When it comes to athletic performance, we're all night owls, a new study suggests.

  10. Humans

    Marlin Crash May Be Worse Than Reported

    A newly identified species of billfish resembles white marlins so closely that its presence might be masking how decimated Atlantic stocks of the marlin really are.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Of Bamboo and French Fries

    A bamboo extract can limit the formation of a carcinogen in baked and fried foods.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Want that fiber regular or decaf?

    Coffee is a significant, and previously unrecognized, source of dietary fiber.