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. Earth

    Infectious stowaways

    A new study finds that ballast water can move huge quantities of cholera germs and other microbes between ports around the globe.

  2. Humans

    Of Rats, Mice, and Birds

    Fireworks erupt over an extension of rules to protect lab animals.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Path to heart health is one with a peel

    Consuming lots of oranges and other citrus fruits, or their juices, can trigger beneficial, cholesterol-moderating changes in the blood.

  4. Earth

    Sprawl’s aquatic pollution

    A new study links the traffic associated with urban sprawl to an unexpectedly large rain of air pollutants entering local waters.

  5. Ecosystems

    More on California’s rogue seaweed

    Scientists have obtained genetic confirmation of the assumption that a newfound rogue alga in California waters is the same strain that has been smothering seafloor communities in the Mediterranean.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin E targets dangerous inflammation

    Megadoses of vitamin E may reduce the risk of heart disease in people with diabetes and other conditions that produce chronic, low-grade inflammation.

  7. Earth

    Toxic color TVs and computer monitors

    High concentrations of lead can leach from the X-ray-filtering glass used in picture tubes, suggesting that this glass should be treated as hazardous waste.

  8. Earth

    Prenatal exposures affect sperm later

    Boys exposed in the womb to hormone-mimicking pollutants may mature into men who produce impaired sperm.

  9. Earth

    Allergic to computing?

    The plastic cases of certain computer monitors emit a chemical—triphenyl phosphate—that can cause allergic reactions.

  10. Earth

    Smoking out a source of painful menses

    Breathing in secondhand smoke may contribute to the development of menstrual cramps.

  11. Animals

    Cetacean Seniors

    Whales that give new meaning to longevity.

  12. Earth

    Even Nunavut gets plenty of dioxin

    Within a few weeks, some of the dioxin generated by industrial activities in the United States and Mexico falls out in the high Arctic.