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

    DNA reveals Neandertals traveled thousands of kilometers into Asia

    DNA and stone tool comparisons suggest Eastern European Neandertals trekked 3,000 kilometers to Siberia, where they left a genetic and cultural mark.

  2. Archaeology

    Fossil hand bones point to tool use outside the Homo lineage

    The fossil wrist and thumb bones suggest Paranthropus boisei could grasp tools around 1.5 million years ago.

  3. Anthropology

    What Jane Goodall taught me about bones, loss and not wasting anything

    A personal reflection recalls Jane Goodall’s quiet pragmatism, her deep bond with Gombe’s chimps and the scientific legacy of her skeletal collection.

  4. Anthropology

    An ancient Chinese skull might change how we see our human roots

    Digital reconstruction of a partially crushed skull suggests new insight into Homo sapiens’ evolutionary relationship to Denisovans and Neandertals.

  5. Anthropology

    The oldest known mummies have been found — in Southeast Asia

    Southeast Asian groups mummified bodies over smoky fires before burying them as early as 12,000 years ago, long before Egyptians began making mummies.

  6. Archaeology

    Venice’s iconic winged lion statue originated in ancient China

    European artisans turned a Tang Dynasty tomb guardian sculpture into a symbol of medieval Venetian statehood, researchers say.

  7. Archaeology

    Ancient hominids made long road trips to collect stone for tools

    A Kenyan site shows early hominids transported stone 13 kilometers for toolmaking as early as 2.6 million years ago.

  8. Archaeology

    7 stone tools might rewrite the timeline of hominid migration in Indonesia 

    Excavated implements suggest a Homo species arrived on Sulawesi over 1 million years ago, before a nearby island hosted hobbit ancestors.

  9. Anthropology

    ‘Dragon Man’ skull may be the first from an enigmatic human cousin

    Ancient proteins and DNA may peg a 146,000-year-old Chinese skull as the most complete fossil to date from Denisovans, a puzzling line of Asian hominids.

  10. Archaeology

    Precolonial farmers thrived in one of North America’s coldest places

    Ancestral Menominee people in what’s now Michigan’s Upper Peninsula grew maize and other crops on large tracts of land despite harsh conditions.

  11. Anthropology

    Males of this ancient human cousin weren’t always bigger than females

    Molecular evidence from a 2-million-year-old southern African hominid species indicates sex and genetic differences in P. robustus.

  12. Anthropology

    Humans used whale bones to make tools 20,000 years ago

    Ancient scavengers of the beached beasts turned their bones into implements that spread across a large area, researchers say.