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. Archaeology

    Pottery points to ‘mother culture’

    The Olmec, a society that more than 3,000 years ago inhabited what is now Mexico's Gulf Coast, acted as a mother culture for communities located hundreds of miles away, according to a chemical analysis of pottery remains and local clays from ancient population sites in the area.

  2. Anthropology

    Human fossils are oldest yet

    Homo sapiens fossils found along Ethiopia's Omo River in 1967 date to 195,000 years ago, making them the oldest-known remains of our species.

  3. Math minus Grammar: Number skills survive language losses

    Three men who suffered left brain damage that undermined their capacity to speak and understand language still possessed a firm grip of mathematics.

  4. Lefties, righties take neural sides in perceiving parts

    A brain-imaging study indicates that right-handers and left-handers use different, corresponding neural regions to perceive parts of an object while ignoring the larger entity.

  5. Asian Kids’ IQ Lift: Reading system may boost Chinese scores

    A new study of Chinese and Greek kids suggests that a Chinese IQ advantage over Westerners stems from superior spatial abilities, possibly because the Chinese learn to read pictorial symbols that emphasize spatial perception.

  6. Anxieties stoke bipolar unrest

    Insomnia and other serious sleep difficulties plague many people with bipolar disorder, even after medications have eased their extreme mood swings.

  7. Anthropology

    Cultivating Revolutions

    New studies suggest that farmers spread from the Middle East throughout Europe beginning around 10,000 years ago in a multitude of small migrations that rapidly changed the continent's social and cultural landscape.

  8. Lost Sight, Found Sound: Visual cortex sees way to acquiring new duties

    Brain areas that are usually devoted solely to vision can take on new duties following severe or total sight loss.

  9. Paleontology

    Pieces of an Ancestor: African site yields new look at ancient species

    Fossils unearthed at sites in eastern Africa provide a rare look at Ardipithecus ramidus, a member of the human evolutionary family that lived more than 4 million years ago.

  10. Goodnight moon, hello Mom and Dad

    A California survey indicates that the practice of allowing babies and toddlers to sleep in the same bed as their parents do occurs in two forms, each with its own implications for the quality of family sleep and the children's psychological development.

  11. Same brain region handles whistles and words

    Brain areas already implicated in the use and comprehension of spoken language play comparable roles in the whistled messages of shepherds living on an island near Spain.

  12. Hands-on Math Insights: Teachers’ mismatched gestures boost learning

    As teachers instruct a child, they typically use their hands as well as their voices, but only certain gestures pack a powerful educational punch.