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. Drug or No Drug: Placebos may be more than appeasing

    A new analysis of FDA data concludes that placebo pills generally offer almost as much symptom relief to depressed patients as antidepressant medications do, raising questions about physicians' antidepressant-prescription practices.

  2. Gene variants shield against depression

    Some child-abuse victims possess specific variations in a stress-regulating gene that decrease their likelihood of developing moderate or severe depression as adults, a research team reports.

  3. Internet Seduction: Online sex offenders prey on at-risk teens

    Most online sex crimes involve adults seducing psychologically vulnerable teenagers into sexual relationships, a finding at odds with public fears of Internet-using children falling prey to deceptive, violent sexual predators.

  4. New World Stopover: People may have entered the Americas in stages

    People first reached the edge of the Americas about 40,000 years ago but had to stay put for at least 20,000 years before melting ice sheets allowed them to move south and settle the rest of the continent.

  5. Tots Who Tote: Babies show neural signs of budding number sense

    By three months of age, infants already display separate brain networks for detecting changes in either the number or the types of objects that they see.

  6. Archaeology

    Zeus’ altar drew early visitors

    Archaeologists have discovered evidence that people used a ceremonial altar to the ancient Greek god Zeus around 5,000 years ago, a millennium before Zeus worship originated.

  7. Archaeology

    The Black Death chose its victims selectively

    An analysis of medieval skeletons in England and Denmark finds that the devastating epidemic known as the Black Death killed excess numbers of people who were physically frail to begin with.

  8. Archaeology

    Dawn of the City

    A research team has excavated huge public structures from more than 6,000 years ago in northeastern Syria, challenging the notion that the world's first cities arose in the so-called fertile crescent of what's now southern Iraq.

  9. Sickness and Schizophrenia: Psychotic ills tied to previous infections

    Two new studies provide evidence for the longstanding suspicion that certain viral infections early in life promote the development of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

  10. 9/11 attacks stoked U.S. heart ailments

    People who experienced serious stress reactions shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks also displayed markedly elevated rates of new heart and blood vessel ailments over the next 3 years.

  11. Antidepressants get overly positive spin

    Studies finding beneficial effects of antidepressant drugs for depressed patients get published far more often than do studies that uncover no antidepressant benefits.

  12. Anthropology

    Infectious Voyagers: DNA suggests Columbus took syphilis to Europe

    A genetic analysis of syphilis and related bacterial strains from different parts of the world fits the theory that Christopher Columbus and his crew brought syphilis from the Americas to Renaissance Europe, where it evolved into modern strains of the sexually transmitted disease.