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

    Stone Age statuettes don disputed apparel

    A report describing woven caps, skirts, belts, and other apparel on Venus figurines from the Stone Age draws some critical responses.

  2. Anthropology

    Brain Size Surprise: All primates may share expanded frontal cortex

    A new analysis of brains from a variety of mammal species indicates that frontal-cortex expansion has occurred in all primates, not just in people, as scientists have traditionally assumed.

  3. Anthropology

    Extinct ancestor wasn’t so finicky

    Contrary to much anthropological thought, the genus Paranthropus showed as much dietary and behavioral flexibility as ancient Homo species did between 3 million and 1 million years ago.

  4. Anthropology

    Early Ancestors Come Together: Humanity’s roots may lie in single, diverse genus

    Newly discovered fossil teeth in eastern Africa that are more than 5 million years old suggest that the earliest members of the human family evolved as a single, anatomically diverse genus.

  5. Song Sung Blue: In brain, music and language overlap

    Different classical-music passages facilitate thinking about specific verbal categories, triggering brain responses previously seen only when people recognized related linguistic meanings.

  6. Archaeology

    How agriculture ground to a start

    A major advance in agriculture occurred around 11,000 years ago, when western Asians began to walk through patches of wild barley and wheat and scoop handfuls of ripened grains off the ground, a report suggests.

  7. Neural Aging Walks Tall: Aerobic activity fuels elderly brains, minds

    Moderate amounts of regular walking improve brain function and attention in formerly sedentary seniors.

  8. Anthropology

    Some Primates’ Sheltered Lives: Baboons, chimps enter the realm of cave

    In separate studies, researchers have gathered the first systematic evidence showing that baboons and chimpanzees regularly use caves, a behavior many anthropologists have attributed only to people and our direct ancestors.

  9. Anthropology

    European find gets Stone Age date

    A new radiocarbon analysis indicates that a skeleton found more than a century ago in an Italian cave dates to around 26,400 to 23,200 years ago.

  10. Monkeys heed neural calls of the wild

    A part of the brain that's involved in sound processing shows pronounced activity when rhesus monkeys hear their comrades vocalizing but not when the same animals hear other sounds.

  11. The Brain’s Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas

    A strip of brain tissue that regulates most voluntary movements also respond vigorously as people do nothing more than silently read active verbs.

  12. Same interviewer, better memories

    Children may remember details of a witnessed crime more accurately if the same person conducts successive interviews with them.