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. Brain Training Puts Big Hurt on Intense Pain: Volunteers learn to translate imaging data into neural-control tool

    Using brain-imaging technology, researchers have trained people to control activity in a pain-related brain area by using mental techniques, thus enabling them to reduce the intensity of temporary or chronic pain.

  2. Mirror Cells’ Fading Spark: Empathy-related neurons may turn off in autism

    Brain cells implicated in the ability to imitate and empathize with others largely fail to function in children with autism, a new brain-imaging investigation suggests.

  3. Anthropology

    The Pirahã Challenge

    A linguist has sparked controversy with his proposal that a tribe of about 200 people living in Brazil's Amazon rain forest speaks a language devoid of counting and color terms, clauses, and other elements of grammar often considered to be universal.

  4. Anthropology

    Waves of Grain: New data lift old model of agriculture’s origins

    A new analysis of the locations and ages of ancient farming sites reinforces the controversial idea that the groups that started raising crops in the Middle East gradually grew in number and colonized much of Europe.

  5. DNA Clues to Our Kind: Regulatory gene linked to human evolution

    A gene that exerts wide-ranging effects on the brain works harder in people than it does in chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates.

  6. Mental Meeting of the Sexes: Boys’ spatial advantage fades in poor families

    The frequently observed superiority of boys to girls on tests of spatial skill disappears in children of poor families, indicating that this mental ability responds more sensitively to environmental influences than has been assumed.

  7. Anthropology

    Gone with the Flow: Ancient Andes canals irrigated farmland

    Excavations in the Andes mountains have unearthed the earliest known irrigation canals in South America.

  8. Bad Readout from DNA: Genes that act on brain may promote dyslexia

    Studies conducted in the United States, Germany, and England indicate that two genes, both located on chromosome 6 and involved in orchestrating neural migration in developing brains, contribute to the severe learning disorder known as dyslexia.

  9. Dopamine gene ups schizophrenia risk

    A long-term study of children with a rare chromosome deletion indicates that those who have a single copy of a gene that promotes a dopamine overload in the brain have an above-average risk of developing schizophrenia later in life.

  10. Anthropology

    Chimps indifferent to others’ welfare

    New laboratory experiments suggest that chimpanzees, unlike people, don't care about the welfare of unrelated members of their social groups.

  11. Questions on the Couch

    A new policy statement on evidence-based practice from the American Psychological Association illustrates the intense struggle among researchers and clinicians over how best to study the effectiveness of psychotherapy in its many forms.

  12. Left Out by a Stroke: Right-brain injury may upset attention balance

    People who suddenly ignore everything to their left after suffering a right-brain stroke display disturbed activity in uninjured parts of a widespread neural network associated with attention.