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

    Care-Worn Fossils

    A nearly toothless fossil jaw found in France has reignited scientific debate over whether the skeletal remains of physically disabled individuals show that our Stone Age ancestors provided life-saving care to the ill and infirm.

  2. Thoughtful Lessons: Training may enhance intellect in elderly

    The largest study of its kind finds that a brief training course in memory, reasoning, or visual concentration boosts performance on laboratory tests of these cognitive skills among physically healthy elderly people.

  3. Memory grows up in 1-year-olds

    As children enter the second year of life, they exhibit a marked improvement in recalling simple events after a 4-month delay, perhaps reflecting the growth of memory-related brain areas.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Schizophrenia spurs imaging network

    Thanks to a federal grant, a team of researchers will establish a national database of brain images that will allow for expanded investigations of the neural basis of schizophrenia.

  5. Eye-Grabbing Insights: Visual structure grips infants’ attention

    Babies take their first major strides with their eyes, not their legs, as they rapidly distinguish among playpens, pacifiers, and a plethora of other objects.

  6. Brain trait fosters stress disorder

    A brain-scan study of pairs of twin brothers, in each of which only one twin had been a Vietnam combat veteran, indicates that the inheritance of an undersized brain structure called the hippocampus predisposes individuals to post-traumatic stress disorder.

  7. Neural Shape-Up: Brain anticipates object perception

    A new brain-scan study indicates that so-called higher visual areas predict the structure of incoming visual information and suppress activity in the visual system's entry area to foster object recognition.

  8. Anthropology

    Ancient Lure of the Lakes: Early Americans followed the water

    Archaeological investigations in Chile indicate that beginning around 13,000 years ago, early American settlers lived at high altitudes during humid periods, when they could set up hunting camps on the shores of lakes.

  9. Anthropology

    Fossil skull spurs identity dispute

    A dispute has broken out over whether a recently discovered, 7-million-year-old fossil skull represents the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family or an ancient ape.

  10. Spreading Consciousness

    A reanalysis of brain-imaging data links conscious visual experience to activity patterns throughout the brain, challenging the popular view that specific brain areas coordinate this mental state.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Attention Loss: ADHD may lower volume of brain

    Brain-scan data show that the brains of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are slightly smaller than those of their peers who are free of psychiatric disorders.

  12. Archaeology

    Maya warfare takes 10 steps forward

    The discovery of hieroglyphic-covered steps on the side of a Maya pyramid has yielded new information about warfare between two competing city-states around 1,500 years ago.