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. Psychology

    Psychopaths get time off for bad brains

    In a survey, judges tended to say they would reduce sentences for criminals defended with biological evidence.

  2. Humans

    Good times led to grisly custom

    Ancient Chileans developed artificial mummification after an increase in the numbers of living and dead people made naturally preserved bodies hard to ignore.

  3. Saving primates with a dog and scat

    View the video Graduate student Joseph Orkin, left, follows canine field assistant Pinkerton on a hunt for primate poop. Sun Guo-Zheng Joseph Orkin has found an unusual way to study highly endangered — and highly elusive — primates in southwestern China. Orkin hikes into isolated mountaintop forests accompanied by a four-legged assistant who avidly sniffs out scat left by […]

  4. Tangled Roots

    Mingling among Stone Age peoples muddies humans’ evolutionary story.

  5. Humans

    New fossils hint at ancestral split

    Jaw and face bones suggest two Homo species lived in East Africa nearly 2 million years ago.

  6. Humans

    Mideast violence goes way back

    One-quarter of skulls excavated in troubled region display injuries from clubs or other weapons.

  7. Humans

    Early Americans took two tool tracks

    Creators of separate spearhead styles colonized North America more than 13,000 years ago.

  8. Humans

    Apocalypse, not so fast

    Guatemalan find suggests mention of a date far in the future served a Maya king’s immediate needs.

  9. Archaeology

    Oldest pottery comes from Chinese cave

    New dates show that East Asian hunter-gatherers fired up cooking vessels 20,000 years ago.

  10. Psychology

    Thirtysomethings flex their number sense

    A mental feel for estimating amounts maxes out later in life and may influence math achievement.

  11. Humans

    Ancient North Africans got milk

    Pottery study unveils early dairy practices among Saharan cattle herders.

  12. Humans

    European cave art gets older

    Ancient illustrations in northern Spain date to more than 40,000 years ago.