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

    Babies may benefit from moms’ lasting melancholy

    Fetuses pick up on maternal depression and thrive after birth if mothers don’t get better, a new study suggests.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Hands off and on in schizophrenia

    A broken connection to one’s physical self may cause a rubber hand to seem like a real one.

  3. Psychology

    Skateboarders rock physics

    Skateboarding develops intuition about slope speeds unavailable to most people.

  4. Psychology

    ‘Gorilla man’ goes unheard

    Paying attention to what others say can make listeners totally unaware of unexpected sounds.

  5. Darwin’s Tongues

    Languages, like genes, can tell evolutionary tales.

  6. Humans

    Humans’ entry into Europe pushed earlier

    Homo sapiens fossils from Italy and England point to an early arrival and a longer time living alongside Neandertals.

  7. Psychology

    Digital bounty hunters unleashed

    Internet technique shows promise as fast way to mobilize huge problem-solving teams.

  8. Humans

    Early farmers’ fishy menu

    Northern Europeans retained a taste for aquatic foods after farmers arrived 6,000 years ago.

  9. Psychology

    Learning to walk on err

    Flub-inducing treadmill tasks aid motor learning, with rehab implications.

  10. Humans

    Stone Age paint shop unearthed

    The discovery of tools for making a substance possibly used in body decoration suggests humans could invent and plan by 100,000 years ago.

  11. Humans

    Inca takeovers not usually hostile

    Skeletal evidence suggests that war was not the answer for Inca imperialists.

  12. Psychology

    Teen daters pal up to the bottle

    Buddies of boyfriends and girlfriends push teens toward or away from booze.