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

    Oh Boy—Is Mom Hungry!

    At birth, boys tend to weigh about 100 grams (3.5 ounces) more than girls. An international research team wondered whether that meant that boys’ moms ate more during pregnancy. In data published this week, the scientists now confirm that’s exactly what happens. Though women eat more when carrying a boy, they don’t gain more weight […]

  2. Earth

    Sticky Situation: Nonstick surfaces can turn toxic at high heat

    Nonstick cookware can, if overheated, sicken people and kill birds, according to a new analysis of research published over the past 40 years.

  3. Ecosystems

    Zebra mussels to the rescue

    Bioengineers have harnessed zebra mussels to help avert algal blooms by cleaning particles, including algae, from the water.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Heart drug derails algal toxin

    A drug for treating high cholesterol might someday find use relieving the debilitating symptoms of poisoning from some algal toxins.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Herbal Lottery

    Many herbal-product makers aren't maintaining adequate quality control, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to propose rules that mandate good manufacturing practices.

  6. Earth

    Vermiculite turns toxic

    Federal agencies issued a warning that much of the vermiculite ceiling insulation installed a decade or more ago may be tainted with cancer-causing asbestos.

  7. Agriculture

    Global Food Trends

    Last year, for the third year in four, world per-capita grain production fell. Even more disturbing in a world where people still go hungry, at 294 kilograms, last year’s per capita grain yield was the lowest in more than 30 years. Indeed, the global grain harvest has not met demand for 4 years, causing governments […]

  8. Agriculture

    How Olives Might Enhance Potatoes—and Strawberries

    Many people savor the flavor of olive oil. Few who have ever encountered the “cake” that remains after the oil is pressed, however, savor the experience. Thats because the pressed olive flesh ends up in unused, smelly heaps. In the European Union alone, olive processors produce some 8 million metric tons of these rank wastes […]

  9. Earth

    When pollutants take the Arctic route

    The highest North American concentrations of at least one air pollutant from Asia can be found in Newfoundland, the continent's easternmost region.

  10. Earth

    What’s happening to German eelpout?

    Reproductive anomalies in eel-like fish may represent good markers of exposure to hormones or pollutants that mimic them.

  11. Earth

    Flame retardants morph into dioxins

    Sunlight can break down common flame retardants, now nearly ubiquitous in the environment, into unusual chemicals in the dioxin family.

  12. Earth

    Reused paper can be polluted

    Toxic chemicals can end up in recycled paper, making release of these reused materials into the environment potentially harmful.