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 roots of music depreciation

    The brains of tone-deaf people may be unable to detect subtle shifts in pitch, which keeps them from learning the basic structure of musical passages.

  2. Teen Brains on Trial

    Scientific opinions differ about whether evidence on delayed maturation of the adolescent brain should be used to argue that teenagers have reduced culpability for crimes and thus should be exempt from the death penalty.

  3. Archaeology

    Stone Age Combustion: Fire use proposed at ancient Israeli site

    A Stone Age site in Israel contains the oldest evidence of controlled fire use in Asia or Europe, from around 750,000 years ago, a research team reports.

  4. Anthropology

    ‘Y guy’ steps into human-evolution debate

    The common ancestor of today's males lived in Africa between 35,000 and 89,000 years ago, according to a contested DNA analysis.

  5. Archaeology

    Agriculture’s roots go tropical

    Tropical-forest dwellers in Central America may have cultivated manioc and other root crops as many as 7,000 years ago.

  6. Archaeology

    Early farmers crop up in Jordan

    An ancient site discovered in southern Jordan dating back more than 9,000 years may help to illuminate the origins of farming in the Middle East.

  7. Culture of the Sea

    Whales and dolphins strut their social stuff for scientists.

  8. Certain mental ills may be tied to violence

    A long-term study in New Zealand links elevated violence rates in young adults to the presence of at least one of three psychiatric ailments—alcohol dependence, marijuana dependence, and a range of psychotic experiences and beliefs called schizophrenia-spectrum disorder.

  9. Get Mellow, Fellow: Male baboons cooperate after cultural prodding

    Researchers say they have found a troop of wild baboons in which females somehow transmit peaceful attitudes to males who transfer into the group.

  10. Archaeology

    Israeli cave yields Stone Age kills

    A recently discovered Israeli cave has yielded some of the earliest known evidence of hunting by humans or our evolutionary ancestors, from around 300,000 to 200,000 years ago.

  11. Anthropology

    Rock-solid choices of first toolmakers

    Human ancestors who took up stone toolmaking in Africa around 2.6 million years ago already showed a proclivity for choosing high-quality pieces of rock, a new study finds.

  12. Archaeology

    Cat’s Cradle? New find pushes back origin of tamed felines

    Archaeological finds on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus indicate that people domesticated cats by about 9,500 years ago, long before cat taming achieved prominence in ancient Egypt.