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. Health & Medicine

    DSM-5 enters the diagnostic fray

    Fifth edition of the widely used psychiatric manual focuses attention on how mental disorders should be defined.

  2. Archaeology

    Ancient Siberians may have rarely hunted mammoths

    Occasional kills by Stone Age humans could not have driven creatures to extinction, researchers say.

  3. Paleontology

    Fossil sheds light on early primates

    Partial skeleton near root of monkey, ape and human line.

  4. Psychology

    Less is more for smart perception

    Neural efficiency reigns in brains of high-IQ individuals as they view their surroundings, a new study indicates.

  5. Psychology

    Dog sniffs out grammar

    After years of word training, a canine intuitively figures out how simple sentences work.

  6. Psychology

    Closed Thinking

    Without scientific competition and open debate, much psychology research goes nowhere.

  7. Life

    Fossils point to ancient ape-monkey split

    Apes and monkeys split from a common ancestor more than 25 million years ago, fossil finds suggest.

  8. Psychology

    Brain training technique gets a critique

    In a new study, a popular style of memory workout leaves reasoning and mental agility flat.

  9. Humans

    Human ancestors had taste for meat, brains

    A mix of hunting and scavenging fed carnivorous cravings of early Homo species.

  10. Humans

    Cannibalism in Colonial America comes to life

    Researchers have found the first skeletal evidence that starving colonists ate their own.

  11. Humans

    Maya civilization’s roots may lie in ritual

    Cultural exchanges in southern Mexico and Guatemala tied to ancient society's rise.

  12. Psychology

    Disputed signs of consciousness seen in babies’ brains

    Within five months of birth, infants produce a possible neural marker of being aware of what they see.