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. Earth

    Species-aid budget looks fishy

    State and federal governments spent $1.4 billion in 2004 on conserving endangered and threatened species, with one-third of that sum going to protect fish.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Study upgrades protons’ risk to DNA

    Proton radiation causes worse breaks in DNA than researchers had expected.

  3. Earth

    Finding dirty diesels

    Just a few diesel-fueled vehicles account for much of traffic-related soot.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Fooling the Satiety Meter (with recipe)

    New studies in portion control reveal that diluted calories are far more effective at satisfying hunger than energy-dense ones are.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Of taters and tots

    For each serving of french fries that a preschool girl typically consumed per week, her adult risk of developing breast cancer climbed.

  6. Earth

    Wind Makes Food Retailers Greener

    Green grocers are among food companies turning ever greener owing to huge investments in wind power.

  7. Earth

    Prions’ dirty little secret

    The malformed proteins responsible for mad cow disease bind tightly to clay, a finding that points to farm soil as a potential long-term reservoir for these infective agents.

  8. Earth

    Manganese can make water toxic

    Drinking water contaminated with manganese can subtly limit a child's intellectual development.

  9. Earth

    A Little Less Green?

    Emerging data indicate that use of pyrethroid pesticides, even by home owners, poses significant environmental risks.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Born to Love Salt

    A growing body of research hints that some type of biological programming may occur in the womb to foster a preference for salty foods.

  11. Humans

    New law to limit politicized science

    A new law prohibits three federal agencies from knowingly disseminating bad data and bans application of any political litmus test to experts under consideration as advisers.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Caffeinated Liver Defense

    Caffeinated beverages appear to protect beleaguered livers.