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. Undercooking makes germs strong

    Precooking servings to sublethal temperatures before the final cooking actually makes germ killing more difficult.

  2. Earth

    Nations sign on to persistent-pollutants ban

    The United States joined 126 other nations in signing a treaty to ban or phase out a dozen persistent and toxic pollutants.

  3. Earth

    Salmon hatcheries can deplete wild stocks

    Hatchery fish appear to be replacing wild salmon populations in the Columbia River.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Dietary protection against sunburn (with recipe)

    Nothing tastes more like summer, to this inveterate gardener, than a home-grown, vine-ripened tomato. As a child, on a sweltering August afternoon, I used to swipe one from our garden to nibble slowly in the backyard. Or Id share a bright red Beefsteak with mom. Slathered with mayonnaise and nestled on a bed of lettuce […]

  5. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotic resistance is coming to dinner

    Foods tainted with bacteria that antibiotics don't kill are a recipe for more serious—even lethal—infections.

  6. Soy estrogen laces paper-mill wastes

    Paper-mill effluent contains an estrogen-mimicking pollutant at concentrations that may adversely affect reproduction in fish.

  7. Earth

    Lead Therapy Won’t Help Most Kids

    Removing lead from the blood fails to spare even moderately exposed children from cognitive impairments.

  8. Earth

    A dietary cost of our appetite for gold

    This Mothers Day, many moms will find their brood and mates proffering glittering booty: sparkling necklaces, earrings, bracelets, brooches, and rings fashioned in whole or in part of gold. There may also be gilded plates, glasses, and grandmas favorite–fragile, matched sets of hand-painted tea cups and saucers. As women admire these tokens of their loved […]

  9. Earth

    Even low lead in kids has a high IQ cost

    Lead can damage a young child's ability to learn and reason at exposures far lower than the limit deemed acceptable by the U.S. government.

  10. Earth

    Beware bathtub wines

    Heres a healthy tip for home vintners: Save the bathtub for cleaning your body–not for storing crushed grapes. Bob Savidge A 66-year-old Australian man paid a high price for his habit of periodically tapping a pair of bathtubs for winemaking: periodic bouts of intense abdominal pain, constipation, and mood swings for more than 2 years. […]

  11. Ecosystems

    Underwater Refuge

    Efforts are under way to greatly expand coastal no-fishing zones.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Germ-killing plastic wrap

    Biodegradable plastic that releases germ killers provides an example of what’s known as active packaging, and scientists report progress toward taking this concept to market. Paul Dawson and his colleagues at Clemson (S.C.) University are fashioning plastics from proteins found in corn, soy, and wheat. While these biodegradable polymers are being heated or compressed to […]