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. Anthropology

    Ape Aid: Chimps share altruistic capacity with people

    Chimpanzees, as well as 18-month-old children, will assist strangers even when getting no personal reward, suggesting that human altruism has deep evolutionary roots.

  2. Archaeology

    Ancient beads found in northern Africa

    Perforated shells found in a Moroccan cave indicate that northern Africans made symbolic body ornaments 82,000 years ago, long before Europeans did.

  3. Borderline Aid: Psychotherapy soothes personality ailment

    Three forms of psychotherapy each provide substantial relief from symptoms of borderline personality disorder.

  4. Mental letdown for antipsychotic meds

    People with chronic schizophrenia get surprisingly modest improvements in memory and learning from new as well as old antipsychotic medications.

  5. Anthropology

    Chicken of the Sea: Poultry may have reached Americas via Polynesia

    Polynesians may have traveled back and forth to South America more than 600 years ago, introducing chickens to the Americas in the process.

  6. Past Impressions

    New research sheds light on the century-old concept of transference, a mental process in which people re-experience past relationships in new interactions.

  7. Take a Number: Kids show math insights without instruction

    Kindergartners can solve relatively complex addition and subtraction problems if allowed to use their intuitive grasp of approximate quantities rather than being required to calculate exact solutions.

  8. Face Talk: Babies see their way to language insights

    Babies 4 to 6 months old can distinguish between two languages solely by watching a speaker's face, without hearing sound.

  9. Synesthesia tied to brain connections

    People who see specific colors when looking at particular letters possess an unusually large number of connections in brain areas that influence word and color perception.

  10. Anthropology

    When female chimps become baby killers

    Although long thought to be rare, instances in which female chimps band together to kill other females' infants occur fairly regularly under certain circumstances.

  11. Fly Moves: Insects buzz about in organized abandon

    Fruit flies display a penchant for spontaneous behavior that represents an evolutionary building block of voluntary choice, also known as free will, a controversial study suggests.

  12. Alzheimer’s clues from thin brains

    Children and teens who possess a gene variant linked to Alzheimer's disease have substantially thinner neural tissue in a key brain structure than their peers do.