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

    A Carrot Rainbow (with recipe)

    There are more than aesthetic benefits from looking beyond orange when it comes to selecting carrots.

  2. Earth

    New accord targets long-lived pollutants

    Negotiators drafted an agreement to ban or phase out some of the world's most persistent and toxic pollutants.

  3. Earth

    Choked Up: How dead zones affect fish reproduction

    Some Gulf coast fish exposed to low oxygen are experiencing reproductive problems, and lab studies suggest that a particular protein that silences or reduces sex hormones may be to blame.

  4. Earth

    DDT linked to miscarriages

    A study of Chinese women finds that the pesticide DDT can not only affect menstrual cycles but also foster miscarriages very early in pregnancy.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Uranium, the newest ‘hormone’

    Animal experiments indicate that waterborne uranium can mimic the activity of estrogen, a female sex hormone.

  6. Earth

    Can phthalates subtly alter boys?

    Researchers have linked a mom's exposure to phthalates with a genital marker in boys suggesting a subtle feminization of their reproductive organs.

  7. Agriculture

    Frozen Assets

    A U.S. gene bank has begun deep-freezing semen and other livestock 'seed' for possible future use in research or breeding.

  8. Earth

    Pesticide Disposal Goes Green

    Chemists have developed a new technology to safely clean up toxic agricultural pesticides and a whole lot more.

  9. Earth

    Lemon-scented products spawn pollutants

    Some fragrances used in home-care products can play a role in generating potentially harmful air pollution.

  10. Agriculture

    Learning from Studs

    Livestock gene banks offer dividends to researchers hoping to milk higher profits out of dairying.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Is Vitamin D Fattening?

    People who don't consume enough calcium may find vitamin D sabotages their weight-control efforts by promoting fat gain.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin D: What’s Enough?

    Most researchers studying vitamin D agree that many people would benefit from more of the vitamin, but they haven't yet decided just how much.