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

    Evolutionary Shrinkage: Stone Age Homo find offers small surprise

    Scientists announced the discovery of the partial skeleton of a small-bodied Homo species that inhabited an eastern Indonesian island from at least 38,000 years ago until about 18,000 years ago.

  2. Language goes beyond sight, sound in brain

    Two brain areas long considered crucial for perceiving and speaking words also spring into action in deaf people who are using sign language or watching others do so.

  3. Medical Decisions in Question: Mental incapacity missed by docs

    A substantial minority of medical patients treated for acute conditions at a British hospital lacked the ability to make informed decisions about their care, although their physicians usually didn't recognize it.

  4. Anthropology

    Chimps show skill in termite fishing

    Video cameras set up in a central-African forest have recorded the sophisticated ways in which local chimpanzees catch termites for eating.

  5. Reworking Intuition

    Financially endangered companies rapidly reorganized to become profitable after key staff members ran simulated companies in 2-day sessions organized by a San Diego psychologist.

  6. Certain memories may rest on a good sleep

    People who practice a task that demands quick visual processing perform it better on ensuing trials if they are first allowed to get some sleep.

  7. Hearing Better in the Dark: Blindness fuels ability to place distant sounds

    New evidence indicates that blind people estimate the locations of distant sounds more accurately than sighted people do, even if sight loss didn't occur until adolescence or young adulthood.

  8. Verbal sighting in brains of the blind

    Brain areas typically responsible for visual processing instead contribute to verbal skills in blind people.

  9. Anthropology

    Evolution’s Buggy Ride: Lice leap boldly into human-origins fray

    A controversial genetic analysis of lice raises the possibility that some type of physical contact occurred between ancient humans and Homo erectus, probably in eastern Asia between 50,000 and 25,000 years ago.

  10. Car deaths rise days after terror attacks

    A spike in automobile fatalities in Israel 3 days after each of a recent series of terrorist attacks reflects a delayed, population-wide reaction to those violent incidents, two researchers propose.

  11. Two-Headed Memories: Collaboration gives recall lift to elderly

    Collaboration with a spouse improves the accuracy of older people's memories on tasks such as remembering items on a shopping list or identifying familiar landmarks on a local map.

  12. Schizophrenia takes fatal turn in China

    Suicides among people with schizophrenia are a major public-health concern in China.