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. Humans

    Rare animals get U.N. protection

    Several types of whales, river dolphins, the great white shark, and an unusual camel are among animals designated to receive new or heightened protection under a United Nations treaty.

  2. Health & Medicine

    FDA Launches Acrylamide Investigations

    You knew french fries and potato chips werent health foods. Sure, theyre veggies, but their deep-fat frying adds scads of fat. Depending on whos doing the cooking, that fat can be the saturated type, which can lead to clogged arteries. But until April, who could have suspected that these oh-so-yummy golden-brown spuds were also laced […]

  3. Earth

    Clipping the Fin Trade

    New research and policy developments aim to curb the wasteful and gruesome practice of killing sharks solely for their fins.

  4. Chemistry

    Hot Spuds: Golden path to acrylamide in food

    The browning reaction that imparts flavor to french fries and breads also creates acrylamide, an animal carcinogen.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Challenges in testing for West Nile virus

    The Food and Drug Administration is trying to figure out how blood banks can detect signs of West Nile infection in blood donors and, eventually, test donated blood for the virus itself.

  6. Ecosystems

    State of U.S. Agro-ecosystems

    About one-quarter of the United States’ land cover, excluding Alaska, is farmed–some 430 million to 500 million acres. A massive new project has just assessed this and other food-producing environments, such as coastal waters, fresh waters, and rangelands, to tally factors contributing to health. Released on Sept. 24, it indicates that most ecosystems are undergoing […]

  7. Health & Medicine

    Another Polio? Alarming West Nile fever risks emerge

    Medical workers have found poliolike symptoms in a few victims of West Nile fever, and federal officials noted that blood transfusions appear to have infected some people.

  8. Agriculture

    A Dairy Solution to Mildew Woes

    Milk may prove the savior of some organic wines. Gray areas on these untreated grapes at Temple Bruer Wines reflect heavy powdery mildew damage. The grapes show splitting and “are useless,” notes Peter Crisp. Crisp This vine, treated with whey sprays, shows minimal mildew. Its grapes are acceptable for winemaking. Crisp This milk-sprayed vine also […]

  9. Earth

    Leaden impacts of gum disease, smoking

    Subtle bone loss associated with advanced gum disease can be linked to elevated lead concentrations in the blood.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Chocolate Therapies (with Recipe for Janet’s Chocolate Medicinal Mousse Pie)

    Recently harvested cacao pods. Each holds several dozen seeds, from which chocolate and cocoa are made. (Allen M. Young) Copy of 1688 engraving by Phillippe Sylvestre Dufour of South American native with a chocolate pot and drinking cup at his feet and a molinet to stir the medicinal brew in his left hand. In his […]

  11. Agriculture

    Afghanistan’s Seed Banks Destroyed

    On Sept. 10, scientists in Kabul reported the loss of Afghanistan’s principal agricultural insurance policy: two stores of carefully collected seeds, materials selected to represent the genetic diversity of native crops. Here, some of the wheat seed brought into the country by a convoy, this spring, is being stored pending redistribution to Afghan farmers. USAID […]

  12. Animals

    Many fish run on empty

    Many fish eat all the time, while some others spend their days going from brief feast to lengthy famine.