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. 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.

  2. Anthropology

    DNA to Neandertals: Lighten up

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

  3. Anthropology

    Fossil Sparks

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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Anthropology

    Ancient DNA moves Neandertals eastward

    Evidence from mitochondrial DNA indicates that Neandertals lived 2,000 kilometers farther east than previously thought.

  7. Exercise steps up as depression buster

    Aerobic exercise, done alone or in a group, eases depression almost as well as a common antidepressant does.

  8. Dangerous DNA: Genes linked to suicidal thoughts with med use

    Two gene variations mark many patients who develop suicidal thoughts when treated with widely used antidepressants.

  9. Anthropology

    Sail Away: Tools reveal extent of ancient Polynesian trips

    Rock from Hawaii was fashioned into a stone tool found in Polynesian islands more than 4,000 kilometers to the south, indicating that canoeists made the sea journey around 1,000 years ago.

  10. Anthropology

    Walking Small: Humanlike legs took Homo out of Africa

    Newly discovered fossils, 1.77 million years old, show that the earliest known human ancestors to leave Africa for Asia possessed humanlike legs, feet, and spines, but strikingly small brains and primitive arms.

  11. SSRI use declines, youth suicides rise

    In the United States and the Netherlands, youth suicides have increased as the number of antidepressant prescriptions for children and teenagers has fallen, raising concerns that regulatory warnings about these drugs have backfired.

  12. Archaeology

    Ancient city grew from outside in

    A 6,000-year-old city in what's now northeastern Syria developed when initially independent settlements expanded and merged, unlike other nearby cities that grew from a core outward.