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

    Is Chromium in Your Mineral Supplement?

    As a new study on chromium illustrates, the value of a mineral supplement can depend greatly on which chemical form of the mineral a manufacturer uses.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Smelly garlic: A lung tonic?

    Fresh garlic or its powdered equivalent might prevent a potentially lethal condition in which pulmonary blood pressure is selectively elevated.

  3. Breath training aids sprint power

    Breath training may help athletes who perform short, high-intensity activities such as sprinting.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Blood hints at autism’s source

    A new biochemical profile in blood may lead to earlier diagnosis of autism and a better understanding of its genetic causes.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Viagra might rescue risky pregnancies

    Viagra shows promise for limiting threats of fetal loss from preeclampsia, a type of high blood pressure that frequently occurs during pregnancy.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Improving Prospects for Functional Foods

    A new analysis recommends streamlining rules that govern the production and sale of foods that improve health.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Still Hungry?

    New research indicates that diet and lifestyle can affect the body's production of a hunger hormone in ways that might unwittingly foster overeating.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Plants take bite out of deadly snake venoms

    A Nigerian pharmacologist has found in local plants a potential antidote to some of the world's most deadly snake venoms.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Flame retardants spark new concern

    Breakdown products in brominated flame retardants, traces of which circulate in the blood of most people, may perturb the normal production of reproductive hormones, a new test-tube study suggests.

  10. Earth

    Paint additive hammers coral

    A pesticidal additive in the paint applied to ship hulls may be contributing to the worldwide decline of corals.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Fowl News—Food Additive’s Extra Benefit

    Turkeys and people may both reap unusual benefits from diets supplemented with a preservative originally used to keep foods from going stale.

  12. Earth

    Nano Hazards: Exposure to minute particles harms lungs, circulatory system

    Inhaling microscopic nanospheres and nanotubes, as might occur during their manufacture or commercial use, could trigger damage well beyond the lungs.