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

    Stone Age Ear for Speech: Ancient finds sound off on roots of language

    Ancestors of Neandertals that lived at least 350,000 years ago heard the same range of sounds that people today do, suggesting that the ability to speak arose early in the Stone Age.

  2. Sleepy brains take learning seriously

    After people practice a hand-eye coordination task, electrical activity in specific areas of the brain during sleep reflects neural processes involved in learning to perform that task better.

  3. Beg Your Indulgence

    The Japanese concept of amae, in which one person presumes that another will indulgently grant a special request, may apply to different forms of behavior at different ages, even in Western countries.

  4. Archaeology

    Massive Fishery Resurfaces in Amazon

    Native groups in an Amazonian region of Bolivia built a large-scale fishery and other earthworks at least 300 years ago, before the Spanish conquest.

  5. Tuning Up Young Minds: Music lessons give kids a small IQ advantage

    Regular music lessons, focused either on learning to play an instrument or to sing, result in small but statistically significant IQ gains for first graders by the end of the school year, a new study finds.

  6. A Fetching Lexicon: Language clues come from dog’s vocabulary

    A research team finds that a 9-year-old border collie displays a keen facility for learning word meanings, providing new support for the theory that simple types of thinking practiced by some nonhuman animals also make word learning possible in toddlers.

  7. Chimp DNA yields complex surprises

    A molecular comparison of chromosome 22 in chimpanzees with its counterpart in people reveals surprisingly complex genetic differences between the two species.

  8. Death Waits for No One: Deferred demises take a couple of hits

    Two new reports challenge the idea that elderly people suffering from serious physical illnesses can prolong their lives just long enough to experience a personally meaningful event.

  9. Sexing Brains Down and Up: Early aspirin dose hits male rats below the belt

    Prenatal exposure to a certain class of drugs, which includes aspirin and acetaminophen, leads to adult sexual difficulties in male rats, raising concerns about the use of such drugs by pregnant women.

  10. Anthropology

    Out on a Limb

    The science of body development may make kindling out of evolutionary trees.

  11. Pot on the Spot: Marijuana’s risks become blurrier

    A research review challenges the assumption that scientists have demonstrated a causal link between teenage marijuana use and later psychological and behavioral problems.

  12. Archaeology

    Guatemalan sites yield Maya insights

    Excavations at three archaeological sites in Guatemala have provided new insights into both the early and late stages of ancient Maya civilization.