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. Agriculture

    Cocoa yields are mushrooming—downward

    A mushroom epidemic in Brazilian cacao trees, which has cut the production of cacao by 25 percent in 5 years, may be treatable with another fungus.

  2. Earth

    Hey polluters! This billboard’s for you

    Motorists generally like and respond to personalized billboard messages about when an engine tune-up may be warranted.

  3. Glacial warming’s pollutant threat

    Some Arctic wildlife are being exposed to high amounts of toxic wastes as glacial melting releases pollutants that had been buried in ice for decades.

  4. Agriculture

    Sprawling over croplands

    Satellite imagery indicates that sprawling urban development has been disproportionately gobbling up those lands best able to support crops.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects

    Scientists are trying to find out whether biological changes associated with cell-phone use represent health risks.

  6. Humans

    Treaty Nears on Gene-Altered Exports

    In an effort to help preserve biodiversity, negotiators from 130 nations crafted rules of conduct for international trade in living, genetically engineered organisms.

  7. Earth

    Liquid Assets

    Research provides guidance on how best to bank water during times of plenty for use during subsequent droughts

  8. Earth

    Backyard burning is recipe for dioxin

    A few rural households burning trash may generate more toxic dioxins than a major, properly operated municipal incinerator.

  9. Health & Medicine

    The salmon that went moo

    People allergic to milk products could face potentially life-threatening risks by eating casein-treated fish.

  10. Health & Medicine

    This roe’s got a fish-E surprise

    Scientists discovered a potent, new form of vitamin E, an antioxidant, in fish adapted for life in cold water.

  11. Health & Medicine

    USDA gives nod to irradiating meats

    The federal government approved food irradiation, the only technology known to kill an especially lethal strain of bacteria, for use on raw meats.

  12. Earth

    Algae Turn Fish into a Lethal Lunch

    Scientists demonstrated that some marine mammals have died from eating fish tainted with a neurotoxic diatom.