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. Cooperative strangers turn a mutual profit

    In social exchanges, monkeys and people often appear to act according to the principle that "one good turn deserves another."

  2. Psychotic Biology: Genes yield clues to schizophrenia’s roots

    Two genes involved in the transmission of glutamate, a key chemical messenger in the brain, are linked to the occurrence of the severe mental disorder schizophrenia.

  3. Paleontology

    Salvaged DNA adds to Neandertals’ mystique

    Researchers who isolated a sample of Neandertal mitochondrial DNA say that it provides no evidence that Neandertals contributed to modern human evolution.

  4. Anthropology

    Court releases ancient skeleton

    A judge's decision gives scientists the right to study the 9,000-year-old skeleton dubbed Kennewick Man rather than turn the remains over to a coalition of Native American tribes for reburial.

  5. Anthropology

    Neandertals return at German cave site

    Researchers who tracked down the location of a German cave where the first Neandertal skeleton was discovered in 1856 have unearthed new Neandertal finds.

  6. Evolutionary Upstarts

    Theories of the evolution of the human mind are evolving, with some researchers now presenting alternatives to the dominant notion that genetic competition for survival during the Stone Age yielded brains stocked with a bevy of instincts for specific types of thinking.

  7. Good Readers May Get Perceptual Lift

    The ability to hear and see rapidly changing stimuli may underlie reading skills, raising the possibility of new approaches to reading instruction.

  8. Listen to the shapes

    People use still-unspecified acoustic cues to discern the shapes of hidden, vibrating plates.

  9. Tough talk for depressed husbands

    Positive comments directed by depressed men to their wives often elicit negative responses from the women, a conversational style that may contribute to the men's mood problems.

  10. Brain cells work together to pay attention

    Cells in the brain's cortex may coordinate their electrical activity as attention shifts from visual to tactile information.

  11. Distressing Dispatches: Some journalists feel stress wounds of war

    A substantial and largely unnoticed minority of war reporters and photographers develops symptoms of a severe stress reaction as a result of the job.

  12. Archaeology

    Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line

    Excavations in China yield surprising finds of 800,000-year-old stone hand axes.