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

    The water system that helped Angkor rise may have also brought its fall

    A complex water system magnified flooding’s disruption of the medieval Cambodian city of Angkor.

  2. Archaeology

    An ancient child’s ‘vampire burial’ included steps to prevent resurrection

    A 10-year-old skeleton in a Roman cemetery had a stone placed in its mouth to prevent the youngster from rising from the dead, researchers say.

  3. Science & Society

    The economics of climate change and tech innovation win U.S. pair a Nobel

    Climate change and tech innovations inspired the new Nobel Memorial Prize winners in Economic Sciences.

  4. Humans

    A 90,000-year-old bone knife hints special tools appeared early in Africa

    The discovery of a bone knife in a Moroccan cave points to the ancient emergence of specialized toolmaking in the region.

  5. Archaeology

    Laser mapping shows the surprising complexity of the Maya civilization

    A large-scale lidar survey of Guatemalan forests reveals evidence of ancient, interconnected Maya cities.

  6. Psychology

    Shahzeen Attari explores the psychology of saving the planet

    Merging psychology with engineering, Shahzeen Attari probes how people think about conservation, energy use and climate change.

  7. Anthropology

    The way hunter-gatherers share food shows how cooperation evolved

    Camp customs override selfishness and generosity when foragers divvy up food, a study of East Africa’s Hazda hunter-gatherers shows.

  8. Anthropology

    Butchered bird bones put humans in Madagascar 10,500 years ago

    Humans reached the island near Africa 6,000 years earlier than thought, raising questions about how its megafauna went extinct.

  9. Archaeology

    This South African cave stone may bear the world’s oldest drawing

    The Stone Age line design could have held special meaning for its makers, a new study finds.

  10. Genetics

    German skeletons hint that medieval warrior groups recruited from afar

    Graveyard finds may come from an ancient European warrior household with political pull.

  11. Psychology

    Huge ‘word gap’ holding back low-income children may not exist after all

    The claim that poor children hear fewer words than kids from higher-income families faces a challenge.

  12. Psychology

    ‘Replication crisis’ spurs reforms in how science studies are done

    Redos of social sciences studies from major journals point to opportunities for improvement.