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. Mean Streets: Kids’ verbal skills drop in bad neighborhoods

    A long-term study of Chicago children and their families finds that kids living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods display substantial declines in verbal ability as they get older, even if they move to a nicer community.

  2. ADHD kids show slower brain growth

    A new brain-scan investigation indicates that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder involves substantial delays in children's brain development.

  3. Anthropology

    Ancient-ape remains discovered in Kenya

    Newly unearthed fossils of a 9.8-million-year-old ape in eastern Africa come from a creature that may have evolved into a common ancestor of African apes and humans.

  4. Showdown at Sex Gap

    Faced with two contrasting reports on the science of sex differences in mathematics and science aptitude, researchers at a meeting held in October tried to figure out what's really known about this controversy and how the findings apply to education and test taking.

  5. Crime Growth: Early mental ills fuel young-adult offending

    Mental disorders in children can lead to criminal behavior in adulthood.

  6. Anthropology

    Wild chimps scale branches of culture

    Distinctive behaviors in wild-chimp communities point to a basic cultural capacity in these animals.

  7. Smarty Gene: Breast-fed kids show DNA-aided IQ boost

    Breast-feeding substantially boosts children's intelligence, but only if the youngsters possess a specific version of a gene involved in processing mothers' milk.

  8. Stimulant Inaction: ADHD drug’s mental lift proves surprisingly weak

    A widely used drug often calms children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder but does little to alleviate the condition's underlying mental deficits.

  9. Anthropology

    DNA to Neandertals: Lighten up

    DNA analysis indicates that some Neandertals may have had a gene for pale skin and red hair.

  10. Anthropology

    Fossil Sparks

    Two new fossil discoveries and an analysis of ancient teeth challenge traditional assumptions about ape and human evolution.

  11. Anthropology

    Going Coastal: Sea cave yields ancient signs of modern behavior

    A South African cave yields evidence of complex, symbolic behavior among ancient people about 164,000 years ago, the oldest such indications yet.

  12. Shifty Talk: Probing the process of word evolution

    Words change more quickly over the millennia the less frequently they are used, a quantitative result that may aid in reconstructing old languages and predicting future changes.