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

    Cousteau finds “hypocrisy” in scientific whaling

    Another challenge surfaces to Japan's "scientific" whaling.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Vitamins add vitality to aging chromosomes

    The chromosomes of many multivitamin supplements users appear younger -- about 10 years younger, a new study finds.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Of ‘science’ and fetal whaling

    Japan had been sacrificing a large number of pregnant whales in the name of science.

  4. Humans

    Doctors don’t always relay important test results

    When it comes to medical tests, don't assume that 'no news is good news,' a new study finds.

  5. Computing

    Asia: One reason America can’t afford to jettison good teachers

    Asia appears to prize science and tech education far more than America does, and the result may be a waning of the West's economic and entrepreneurial dominance.

  6. Humans

    ‘CRAP’ paper accepted for publication

    Find out what happens when a joke, a hoax manuscript, is submitted to an open-access journal.

  7. Humans

    Plump youngsters show heart-y risks

    Even fat 7-year olds show they're developing a risk of blood clots and other impacts of cardiovascular disease.

  8. Humans

    Brown fat: Where it’s at

    Sometimes a fat neck can be a good thing.

  9. Health & Medicine

    More troubling news about BPA

    Animal studies link bisphenol A — a building block of hard, clear plastics that taints many foods — with new adverse health effects.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Hospitals’ drug problem

    Hospitals often don't know pharmaceutical-waste rules, and even those that do often release huge quantities of drugs into the environment.

  11. Earth

    The Maine way to get rid of drugs

    Maine residents can soon send away old and unwanted drugs for free, "green" disposal.

  12. Agriculture

    Pesticide may seed American infant formulas with melamine

    An insecticide may underlie traces of melamine, a toxic constituent of plastics and other materials, now being found in infant formulas.