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

    ‘Harmless’ Alga Indicted for Mussel Poisoning

    A common algal species turns out to be a serious food-poisoning agent.

  2. Earth

    Really hot water

    Hot-water tanks can accumulate radioactive deposits from naturally occurring radioactive material.

  3. Humans

    Helping patients decipher options

    Scientific publishers and research organizations are preparing to launch a Web site that will make new research findings available to the public in an easy-to-understand context.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Food Colorings

    Many deeply hued plant pigments appear to offer health benefits, from fighting heart disease and obesity to preserving memory.

  5. Humans

    Tobacco treaty on its way

    An international tobacco-control treaty will go into effect on Feb. 28, 2005.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin C and diabetes: Risky mix?

    Vitamin C supplements may place people with diabetes at increased risk of heart disease.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Vinegar as a Sweet Solution?

    A spoonful of vinegar can help the blood sugar go down.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Shark Finning Faces Broader Sanctions

    Even as the gruesome practice of shark finning faces a broader ban, regulators find challenges in bringing scofflaws to justice.

  9. Health & Medicine

    How Carbs Can Make Burgers Safer

    Though meats can develop carcinogens during grilling, adding potato starch before cooking can limit the carcinogens' formation and possibly uptake by the body.

  10. Earth

    Inhaled particles damage vascular lining

    Airborne soot and other pollutant particles can impair the ability of tiny vessels in the body to properly regulate blood flow, an animal study finds.

  11. Earth

    Salmon puzzle: Why did males turn female?

    Most of the spawning female Chinook salmon in one part of the Columbia River appear to have started life as males.

  12. Chemistry

    Cleaning up anthrax

    Chemists have developed catalysts that spur common oxidants to quickly destroy germs, including deadly anthrax spores.