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

    Chimps scratch out grooming requests

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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. Anthropology

    Polynesian Latecomers: Easter Islanders took fast track to culture

    New radiocarbon dates from Easter Island indicate that the isolated Polynesian island was first colonized around A.D. 1200, up to 800 years later than had previously been thought.

  9. Archaeology

    Ancient Andean Maize Makers: Finds push back farming, trade in highland Peru

    Fossilized plant remains recovered from a nearly 4,000-year-old house in the Andes Mountains of southern Peru show that highland inhabitants cultivated maize and imported other plant foods from lowland forests at around the time that large societies developed in the region.

  10. Babies show budding number knowledge

    By 7 months of age, babies often can tell the difference between two and three entities, at least under certain circumstances.

  11. Anthropology

    Big Woman with a Distant Past: Stone Age gal embodies humanity’s cold shifts

    A 260,000-year-old partial skeleton previously found in China represents the largest known female among human ancestors and underscores the ancient origins of large, broad bodies adapted for survival in cold conditions.

  12. Smart shoppers use unconscious tactics

    Consumers make better decisions about major purchases if they heed the power of their unconscious minds.