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

    Beer’s Well Done Benefit

    Beer may prove therapeutic for diners who prefer their meat cooked until it's well done.

  2. Health & Medicine

    A Fishy Therapy

    Shark cartilage continues to be sold to fight cancer, even though its efficacy has not been confirmed by any major U.S. trials.

  3. Earth

    Winged solution to biopollution?

    Government officials have released alien moths in hopes that they will rein in the spread of an aggressive climbing fern now invading some 100,000 acres in south Florida.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Study can’t tie EMFs to cancer

    A massive, long-term Swedish study has found no sign that occupational exposures to electromagnetic fields might trigger breast cancer in women.

  5. Earth

    PCBs damage fish immune systems

    A common Arctic fish can suffer subtle immunological impairments from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls at concentrations recorded in some remote polar waters.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Carcinogens in the Diet

    The U.S. government has added chemicals commonly found in overcooked meat to the list of potential cancer causers.

  7. Humans

    High costs of CT screening

    Whole-body computed tomography scans for asymptomatic disease do not appear cost-effective at this time.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Trimming with Tea

    Components of green tea appear to help diners lose weight, a several-month-long Japanese trial finds.

  9. Earth

    Long-winded benefits

    Certain wind-energy systems that store excess energy for a time using compressed air can be as reliable as and far cleaner than conventional electric-generating plants.

  10. Earth

    Of X rays, viruses, and cooked meat

    The National Toxicology Program updated its list of human carcinogens to include X rays and several viruses and added lead and some compounds formed in overcooked meats to its list of probable human carcinogens.

  11. Humans

    NIH tightens its ethics rules

    The National Institutes of Health issued new ethics rules to keep its employees from engaging in potentially questionable relationships with organizations that might have a financial interest in NIH activities or policies.

  12. Earth

    Ozone saps toads’ immune systems

    In amphibians, ozone damages immune function in the lungs, suggesting a possible new contributor to worldwide amphibian declines.