All Stories by Bruce Bower
- Humans
Ancient hominid had an unusual diet
A long-extinct member of the human evolutionary family had an uncommon taste for grasses and sedges.
- Humans
An ancient civilization’s wet ascent, dry demise
Cave data suggest that ancient rainfall patterns swayed the course of Classic Maya societies.
- Psychology
Too little money, too much borrowing
A contested study suggests that poverty contracts attention and detracts from financial decisions.
- Humans
Shoulder fossil may put Lucy’s kind up a tree
Fossils of an ancient child suggest the more than 3-million-year-old hominid mixed climbing with walking.
- Psychology
Delaying gratification is about worldview as much as willpower
Preschoolers’ social expectations influence how long they’re willing to hold out for extra goodies.
- Science & Society
Banks err by confusing risk, uncertainty
Too much information prompted bad currency projections by international money firms, a psychologist contends, and may have blinded them to the global financial crisis.
- Humans
Human-Neandertal mating gets a new date
Late Stone Age interbreeding between Neandertals and people may have left a mark on Europeans’ DNA.
- Humans
In New Guinea, peace comes with a price
Conflict resolution in small-scale societies may have contributed to declines in state-sponsored violence.
- Humans
Feather finds hint at Neandertal art
Plumage found at ancient sites may indicate capability for abstract thought among humans’ Stone Age cousins.
- Humans
A moving lift for poor families
Federal housing subsidies didn’t fight poverty as hoped, but trading public housing for new neighborhoods brought psychological benefits.
- Humans
Herders, not farmers, built Stonehenge
Farming’s temporary demise in ancient Britain may have spurred the creation of the iconic stone circle.
- Humans
DNA unveils enigmatic Denisovans
Technical advances amplify the genetic record of a Stone Age humanlike population, ancestors of modern Melanesians.
