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

    How environmental changes may have helped make ancient humans more adaptable

    An East African sediment core unveils ecological changes underlying a key Stone Age transition.

  2. Anthropology

    Neandertal babies had stocky chests like their parents

    Our evolutionary relatives may have inherited short, deep rib cages from their ancient ancestors.

  3. Anthropology

    Seven footprints may be the oldest evidence of humans on the Arabian Peninsula

    In what’s now desert, people and other animals stopped to drink at a lake more than 100,000 years ago, a new study suggests.

  4. Science & Society

    ‘The Origins of You’ explores how kids develop into their adult selves

    A new book describes the interplay of nature and nurture as children, at least in Western societies, grow up.

  5. Humans

    Drones find signs of a Native American ‘Great Settlement’ beneath a Kansas pasture

    An earthwork buried under a cattle ranch may be part of one of the largest Native American settlements ever established north of Mexico.

  6. Anthropology

    A stray molar is the oldest known fossil from an ancient gibbon

    A newly described tooth puts ancestors of these small-bodied apes in India roughly 13 million years ago.

  7. Archaeology

    Stonehenge enhanced sounds like voices or music for people inside the monument

    Scientists created a scale model one-twelfth the size of the ancient stone circle to study its acoustics.

  8. Humans

    Ancient sculptures hint at universal facial expressions across cultures

    Interpreting the emotions carved onto sculptures from long ago offers a new way to study how humans perceive facial expressions.

  9. Archaeology

    The oldest known grass beds from 200,000 years ago included insect repellents

    Found in South Africa, 200,000-year-old bedding remnants included fossilized grass, bug-repelling ash and once aromatic camphor leaves.

  10. Life

    Climate change, not hunters, may have killed off woolly rhinos

    Ancient DNA indicates that numbers of woolly rhinos held steady long after people arrived on the scene.

  11. Archaeology

    A submerged Inca offering hints at Lake Titicaca’s sacred role

    Divers found a stone box holding a figurine and a gold item, highlighting Lake Titicaca’s sacred status to the Inca.

  12. Archaeology

    This 1.4-million-year-old hand ax adds to Homo erectus’ known toolkit

    A newly described East African find, among the oldest bone tools found, shows the ancient hominids crafted a range of simple and more complex tools.