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

    School Lunches Are Struggling to Earn High Marks

    In the nation’s schools, the presence of sweet, high-fat snacks in vending machines and on cafeteria lines is undercutting efforts by those institutions to improve the nutrition of U.S. youngsters. Or so conclude a pair of May 9 reports by the General Accounting Office (GAO), an investigative arm of Congress. More schools are offering healthy […]

  2. Earth

    Cars’ ammonia may sabotage tailpipe gains

    Though cars' catalytic converters clean up some of the acidic contributors to urban haze and particulates pollution, a subset of these pollution-control devices seems to foster the production of ammonia, another pivotal ingredient in haze and particulates.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Selenium’s Value to Prostate Health

    Prostate cancer remains the most common malignancy among U.S. men, and internationally it ranks fourth. Though few studies have offered much insight into what triggers this disease, a growing number of researchers have found evidence suggesting that dietary selenium protects men against this cancer. The seafood in this bowl of sushi can be a rich […]

  4. Health & Medicine

    Teen taters, too

    The epidemic of adolescent obesity may owe more to a paucity of exercise than to a growing intake of calories.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Athletes develop whey-better muscles

    Dietary supplements coupling whey and creatine promote the development of bigger, stronger muscles in experienced body builders.

  6. Earth

    Prenatal nicotine: A role in SIDS?

    New data suggest why exposure to nicotine in the womb can put an infant at greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Little vessels react to magnetic switch

    Magnets can act like vascular switches, increasing or decreasing blood flow to a region of the body.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Don’t Belittle this Vitamin

    As vitamins go, B6 doesn’t fly high on the radar screen of most consumers. However, owing to its many benefits–which include protecting DNA–this unsung nutritional hero shouldn’t be neglected, argue a pair of scientists. Last week, they reported data showing that when people consume diets low in this vitamin, their blood has higher rates of […]

  9. Health & Medicine

    Homing In on Ephedra’s Risks

    On Feb. 16, pitcher Steve Bechler of the Baltimore Orioles collapsed while running sprints at the team’s spring-training camp in Florida. He died a few hours later. Subsequent investigation linked the 23-year-old player’s apparent heatstroke with a popular diet aid containing both caffeine and ephedra, a botanical product rich in other natural stimulants. Ephedra plant. […]

  10. Earth

    Death for the killer seaweed

    Biologists have launched a campaign to eradicate the first infestation in open American waters of an invasive mutant algae.

  11. Earth

    Estrogen effects linger in male fish

    Male fish can inappropriately make egg yolk protein, even when only intermittently exposed to water tainted with an estrogenic pollutant.

  12. Earth

    Mapping watersheds invites comparisons

    Computerized maps of environmental features for 154 of the largest river watersheds will soon be available to the public, free of charge.