Janet Raloff

Editor, Digital, Science News Explores

Editor Janet Raloff has been a part of the Science News Media Group for more than four decades. 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. Her writing has won awards from the National Association of Science Writers, International Free Press Association and the Institute of Food Technologists. Over the years, Janet has been an occasional commentator on NPR's "Living on Earth" and her work has appeared in several dozen publications. She is also a founding board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. 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. Eventually, she expanded the magazine's depth, breadth and publication cycle. In 2013 it became her full-time job (although she still writes the occasional story for Science News). 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). She interned with the Office of Cancer Communications (NIH), Argonne National Laboratory, the Atomic Energy Commission (now Energy Department), the Oak Ridger in Tennessee and the Rock Hill Evening Herald in South Carolina.

All Stories by Janet Raloff

  1. Brain

    Sleepyheads prefer junk food

    A night without sleep changes the brain and how appetizing people find high-calorie foods.

  2. Brain

    Teen fighting may harm IQ

    Blows to the head may explain these effects on the brain.

  3. Environment

    Home, plastic home

    Some ocean life is moving into floating piles of plastic trash.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Fat becomes a disease

    Medical group decides it is time for doctors to view — and treat — obesity as a disease.

  5. Climate

    Tornado caught storm chasers

    On May 31, 55-year-old Tim Samaras died chasing tornadoes.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Killer-flu update

    Infection that recently developed in China shows signs of being easy to spread and hard to kill.

  7. Climate

    Major twister hits Oklahoma

    Its speed, which largely determines the damage it causes, is still unknown.

  8. Science & Society

    Explainer: What is a patent?

    Patents protect intellectual property from theft

  9. Health & Medicine

    Deadly new virus emerges

    A mysterious infection has been spreading for almost a year.

  10. Ecosystems

    Predators as climate helpers

    In lakes and streams, fish and insects can help protect aquatic plants that gobble up greenhouse gas.

  11. Planets

    Meteor explodes over Russia

    Surprise: No one saw it coming.

  12. Earth

    Piercing a buried polar lake

    Researchers in Antarctica drilled through a half-mile of ice to reach water that hasn’t had contact with the atmosphere for thousands of years.