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. Psychology

    Moral Tribes

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

  2. Life

    Neandertal genes point to interbreeding, inbreeding

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

  3. 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.

  4. Humans

    Fossils reveal a strong-armed, dead-end hominid

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

  5. Anthropology

    Ancient hominid bone serves up DNA stunner

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

  6. Science & Society

    Heal thy neighbor

    As antidepressants and other drugs gradually replace psychotherapy in the United States, new forms of the talking cure are growing in popularity in developing countries ravaged by civil war and poverty.

  7. Archaeology

    Early shrine unearthed at Nepal Buddhist site

    Ritual structure could help pin down when the sage known as the Buddha lived in South Asia.

  8. Anthropology

    Little Red Riding Hood gets an evolutionary makeover

    A statistical analysis attempts to track the rise of several widespread folktales.

  9. Anthropology

    Human ancestors threw stone-tipped spears at prey

    African discoveries show that hunting weapons thrown from a distance appeared by 279,000 years ago.

  10. Humans

    Bigger numbers, not better brains, smarten human cultures

    An experiment using a computer game supports the idea that big populations drove the evolution of complex human cultures.

  11. Neuroscience

    Brain enables sight without light

    Sensory cross talk may underlie ability to see one’s own hand moving when it’s pitch black.

  12. Psychology

    Groups recall travel details better than loners

    Small teams of people can recite key information from public announcements better than any one person.