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.
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All Stories by Bruce Bower
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Anthropology
A fossil mistaken for a bat may shake up lemurs’ evolutionary history
On Madagascar, a type of lemur called aye-ayes may have a singular evolutionary history.
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Tech
Children may be especially vulnerable to peer pressure from robots
Elementary school children often endorsed unanimous but inaccurate judgments made by small groups of robots.
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Archaeology
The debate over people’s pathway into the Americas heats up
Defenders of an ice-free inland passage for early Americans make their case.
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Genetics
Indonesia’s pygmies didn’t descend from hobbits, DNA analysis suggests
Short people living on the Indonesian island of Flores don’t appear to have DNA from controversial, small-bodied Stone Age hominids called hobbits.
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Anthropology
Cremated remains reveal hints of who is buried at Stonehenge
Ancient stone monument held burials of people from more than 200 kilometers away, a new study suggests.
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Anthropology
Conflict reigns over the history and origins of money
Thousands of years ago, money took different forms as a means of debt payment, archaeologists and anthropologists say.
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Anthropology
How an ancient stone money system works like cryptocurrency
Money has ancient and mysterious pedigrees that go way beyond coins.
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Archaeology
Texas toolmakers add to the debate over who the first Americans were
Stone toolmakers inhabited Texas more than 16,000 years ago, before Clovis hunters arrived.
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Archaeology
Stone tools put early hominids in China 2.1 million years ago
Newly discovered stone tools in China suggest hominids left Africa 250,000 years earlier than we thought.
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Genetics
North America’s earliest dogs came from Siberia
North America’s first dogs have few descendants alive today, a study of ancient DNA suggests.
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Anthropology
Foot fossil pegs hominid kids as upright walkers 3.3 million years ago
A foot from an ancient hominid child suggests that Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, walked early in life.
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Archaeology
Mongolians practiced horse dentistry as early as 3,200 years ago
Horse dentistry got an early start among Bronze Age Mongolian herders.