Bruce Bower

Bruce Bower

Behavioral Sciences Writer

Bruce Bower has written about the behavioral sciences since 1984. He often writes about psychology, anthropology, archaeology and mental health issues. Bruce has a master's degree in psychology from Pepperdine University and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Following an internship at Science News in 1981, he worked as a reporter at Psychiatric News, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, until joining Science News as a staff writer. In 1996, the American Psychological Association appointed Bruce a Science Writer Fellow, with a grant to visit psychological scientists of his own choosing. Early stints as an aide in a day school for children and teenagers with severe psychological problems and as a counselor in a drug diversion center provided Bruce with a surprisingly good background for a career in science journalism.

All Stories by Bruce Bower

  1. Anthropology

    Cattle’s Call of the Wild: Domestication may hold complex genetic tale

    A new investigation of DNA that was obtained from modern cattle and from fossils of their ancient, wild ancestors challenges the idea that herding and farming groups in the Near East domesticated cattle about 11,000 years ago.

  2. Anthropology

    Making sacrifices in Stone Age societies

    A half-dozen burials at sites in Europe and western Asia dating to between 27,000 and 23,000 years ago provide clues to possible human sacrifices.

  3. Anthropology

    Digging up debate in a French cave

    A scientific debate has broken out over whether a French cave excavated more than 50 years ago contains evidence of separate Stone Age occupations by Neandertals and modern humans.

  4. Anthropology

    Neandertals take out their small blades

    Excavations of Neandertal artifacts have yielded a trove of thin, double-edged stone blades that researchers usually regard as the work of Stone Age people who lived much later.

  5. Anthropology

    Ancient islanders get a leg up

    A new analysis of bones from a tiny evolutionary cousin of people found on a Pacific island indicates that these late Stone Age individuals carried a lot of weight on short frames and had extremely strong legs.

  6. Anthropology

    Evolutionary Back Story: Thoroughly modern spine supported human ancestor

    Bones from a spinal column discovered at a nearly 1.8-million-year-old site support the controversial possibility that ancient human ancestors spoke to one another.

  7. Stimulant use eases in U.S. children

    The sharp increase in youngsters taking prescribed stimulants that was noted a decade ago largely leveled off between 1997 and 2002.

  8. Archaeology

    Ancient text gives Judas heroic glow

    Researchers have announced the restoration and translation of a 1,700-year-old papyrus document containing the Gospel of Judas, an account that portrays Judas Iscariot as a hero, not as Jesus' betrayer.

  9. Babies Prune Their Focus: Perception narrows toward infancy’s end

    Between the ages of 6 months and 8 months, infants lose the ability to match the vocalizations and facial movements of monkeys shown in video clips, signaling a temporary perceptual narrowing as babies focus on the human social realm.

  10. The Bias Finders

    A simple test of unconscious preferences has achieved great popularity among psychologists and, at the same time, sparked heated debate over how it works and whether it shows widespread implicit biases against black people.

  11. Anthropology

    Branchless Evolution: Fossils point to single hominid root

    Fossils of a 4.1-million-year-old human ancestor in Ethiopia bolster the controversial idea that early members of our evolutionary family arose one species at a time rather than branching out into numerous species.

  12. Archaeology

    Early farmers took time to tame wheat

    Domesticated varieties of wheat emerged gradually in the prehistoric Near East over a roughly 3,000-year span.