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. Science & Society

    Figure skating judges get a 10 for duplicity

    Sport’s reform efforts have resulted in more nationalistic bias and vote trading.

  2. Humans

    Neandertal hot spots highlighted in modern humans’ DNA

    Mating with evolutionary cousins produced genetic trade-offs for Stone Age people.

  3. Archaeology

    Stone Age fishing spear found on Southeast Asian island

    Notched piece of bone found near Indonesia illustrates surprisingly complex tool making 35,000 years ago.

  4. Anthropology

    Skulls from ancient London suggest ritual decapitations

    The city’s Roman rulers had special watery places to keep the heads of military enemies or vanquished gladiators.

  5. Psychology

    Migraines respond to great expectations

    Patients get more pain relief from drug and placebo labeled as headache busters than from those labeled as dummy pills.

  6. Psychology

    Year in Review: DSM-5’s controversial debut

    The diagnostic manual updates disorder criteria.

  7. Humans

    Year in Review: New discoveries reshape debate over human ancestry

    Human evolution appears poised for a scientific makeover as the relationships among early hominids are disputed.

  8. Psychology

    Moral Tribes

    Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them by Joshua Greene.

  9. Life

    Neandertal genes point to interbreeding, inbreeding

    DNA from 50,000 years ago underscores modest levels of mating across hominid populations.

  10. Archaeology

    Easter Island’s farmers cultivated social resilience, not collapse

    A Polynesian society often presumed to have self-destructed shows signs of having carried on instead.

  11. Humans

    Fossils reveal a strong-armed, dead-end hominid

    Olduvai Gorge finds suggest extinct hominid both walked and hung out in trees.

  12. Anthropology

    Ancient hominid bone serves up DNA stunner

    Spanish hominid fossil from 400,000 years ago reveals genetic ties to Asia’s mysterious Denisovans.