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

    Your body is mine

    Scientists have developed a technique for inducing an illusion of having swapped one’s own body with someone else’s body, providing a new means for investigating self-identity and body-image disorders.

  2. Life

    Stone Age gal gets hip

    Researchers have found an approximately 1-million-year-old fossil pelvis that, in their view, indicates that Homo erectus females gave birth to surprisingly big-brained babies.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Body In Mind

    Long thought the province of the abstract, cognition may actually evolve as physical experiences and actions ignite mental life.