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. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Archaeology

    Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line

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

  5. Anthropology

    Lost-and-Found Fossil Tot: Neandertal baby rises from French archive

    The approximately 40,000-year-old skeleton of a Neandertal baby, filed and forgotten in a French museum for nearly 90 years, has been recovered by an anthropologist.

  6. Grief travels different paths

    A rare study of elderly individuals before and after the death of their spouses finds that a surprisingly large number stayed on an even emotional keel.

  7. Anthropology

    Gene change hints at brain evolution

    A genetic mutation found only in humans first appeared around 2.8 million years ago, perhaps setting the stage for brain enlargement in the Homo lineage.

  8. Rift of Gab: Speech insights spark statistical static

    A controversial new study suggests that people use statistical regularities in language to recognize individual words but not to discern rules for word construction.

  9. Anatomy of antisocial personality

    A disturbance in the brain's prefrontal cortex may either contribute to or result from a psychiatric condition called antisocial personality disorder.

  10. Treatment enigma for disturbed kids

    Two new studies offer conflicting views of the effectiveness of mental-health services for children and teenagers.

  11. Genes to Grow On

    Researchers studying children with Williams syndrome say that the unusual condition emerges through a developmental process that's influenced but not predetermined by a genetic defect.

  12. Survey raises issue of isolated Web users

    A controversial study suggests that heavy users of the Internet become socially isolated.