All Stories by Bruce Bower
- Psychology
A genetic pathway to language disorders
Researchers suspect a newly uncovered regulatory link between two genes contributes to language impairments in a range of developmental disorders.
- Archaeology
An ancient healer reborn
A research team in Israel has uncovered one of the oldest known graves of a shaman. The 12,000-year-old grave hosts a woman’s skeleton surrounded by the remains of unusual animals.
- Humans
Stone Age innovation out of Africa
Researchers have dated two innovative Stone Age tool industries in southern Africa that may have helped spur human migrations out of Africa.
- Life
The Iceman’s mysterious genetic past
Scientists say that they have identified the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the 5,000-year-old Tyrolean Iceman, whose body was found protruding from a glacier in 1991.
- Archaeology
Return of the kings
Excavations in southern Jordan have incited controversy about whether a copper-producing society existed there 3,000 years ago, and whether it was controlled by Israeli kings described in the Old Testament.
- Humans
Midlife suicides are on the rise
Data gleaned from death certificates indicate that, from 1999 to 2005, middle-aged whites accounted for much of the overall increase in the U.S. suicide rate.
- Humans
Rumors of Gulf War Syndrome
British Gulf War veterans responded to military secrecy by talking among themselves about their health problems. Through rumor, the vets collectively defined the controversial ailment known as Gulf War Syndrome, a new study suggests.
- Humans
Infectious finds at ancient site
A DNA analysis of skeletons found at a submerged Israeli site produces the earliest known evidence of human tuberculosis, now known to have existed at a 9,000-year-old farming settlement.
- Health & Medicine
Bad air for growing brains and minds
Preliminary evidence suggests that children’s regular exposure to heavy air pollution can be accompanied by brain inflammation and lowered scores on intelligence tests.
- Health & Medicine
Body In Mind
Long thought the province of the abstract, cognition may actually evolve as physical experiences and actions ignite mental life.
- Humans
New hand, same brain map
An investigation of a man who received a successful hand transplant suggests that reorganization of sensory maps in the brain following amputation can be reversed in short order.
- Humans
The long, wild ride of bipolar disorder
The first long-term study of its kind finds that bipolar disorder identified in children often persists into young adulthood and involves frequent, intense swings between manic euphoria and depression.
