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. Humans

    Longer work hours may warm climate

    U.S. workers put in more hours than most other workers around the world, and one consequence is dramatically higher energy and environmental costs per employee.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Now This Is Depressing . . .

    People who increased their fish consumption to shed a brooding disposition may want to consider alternative strategies.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Trans Fats Are Bad, Aren’t They?

    As New York moves to ban trans fats from fried and baked restaurant fare, little attention has been given to the potentially beneficial trans fats in dairy products and meats.

  4. Chemistry

    Happy fish?

    Researchers have detected antidepressant drugs in the brains of fish captured downstream of sewage-treatment plants.

  5. Earth

    Pesticides mimic estrogen in shellfish

    Two common water pollutants can function in shellfish as estrogen does, but they have different behavioral effects on two species.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Red Heat Might Improve Green Tea

    Roasting green-tea leaves using infrared heat boosts the concentration of various beneficial chemicals in tea brewed from the leaves.

  7. Earth

    Leaden swan song

    Large numbers of trumpeter swans are succumbing to lead poisoning as a result of ingesting old shotgun pellets in areas where use of lead shot has been banned for more than a decade.

  8. Earth

    No-stick chemicals can mimic estrogen

    Some of the perfluorinated compounds used to impart nonstick properties to fabrics and cookware can not only activate a receptor for sex hormones but also inappropriately feminize fish.

  9. Earth

    Sharks, dolphins store pollutants

    Florida's top aquatic predators are rapidly accumulating high concentrations of brominated flame retardants and other persistent toxic chemicals.

  10. Earth

    Could Prozac muscle out mussels?

    Antidepressant drugs may be depressing wild-mussel populations.

  11. Agriculture

    Organic Dairying Is on Upswing, But No Panacea

    Some small dairy farms are making the switch to organic operations to increase profits and distinguish their products from undifferentiated commodities.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Birds Don’t Have to Be So Hot

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised downward, by 15°F, the internal temperature that a cooked turkey must reach in order to be safe to eat. Whether consumers find the meat palatable or rubbery at 165°F is another issue.