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. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Anthropology

    Mystery Drilling: Ancient teeth endured dental procedures

    Researchers have discovered the oldest known examples of dental work, 11 teeth with drilled holes dating to between 9,000 and 7,500 years ago.

  6. Anthropology

    Chimps scratch out grooming requests

    Pairs of adult males in a community of wild African chimps often communicate with gestures.

  7. Smarty Brains: High-IQ kids navigate notable neural shifts

    Children with extremely high IQ scores display a distinctive pattern of brain development, characterized by dramatic thickening and then by marked thinning of brain tissue.

  8. Mood Meds’ Second Wind: Depression drugs aided by extra treatment step

    A second, modified course of drug treatment fosters recovery in a substantial minority of depressed adults who don't feel better after treatment with a commonly prescribed antidepressant.

  9. Anthropology

    Capuchins resist inbreeding chances

    Wild capuchin monkeys manage to avoid inbreeding, despite rampant opportunities for high-status fathers to mate with their grown daughters.

  10. Grown-Up Connections: Mice, monkeys remake brain links as adults

    Two new studies offer a glimpse of extensive remodeling of nerve connections in the brain's outer layer, or cortex, during adulthood in mice and monkeys.

  11. Anthropology

    Evolution persisted in agricultural era

    Natural selection has continued to propagate survival-enhancing gene variants in human populations over the past 10,000 years, according to a new genetic analysis.

  12. Prescription for Controversy

    Increasing concerns about the efficacy and safety of a popular class of antidepressant drugs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially in depressed youth, has sparked regulatory action and scientific debate.