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. An overhead image of a small deer tooth pendant with a hole drilled into it
    Archaeology

    Ancient human DNA was extracted from a 20,000-year-old deer tooth pendant

    Insights into Stone Age people’s lives may soon come from a new, nondestructive DNA extraction method.

  2. A photo of the inside of cave with stalagmites and stalactites in a yellow light.
    Archaeology

    Hair analysis reveals Europe’s oldest physical evidence of drug use

    Analyses of human hair found in a Mediterranean cave turned up psychoactive plant substances, revealing use of hallucinogens around 3,000 years ago.

  3. A close up image of a light orange snail with a brown shell sitting on the ground.
    Archaeology

    What did Homo sapiens eat 170,000 years ago? Roasted, supersized land snails

    Charred shell bits at an African site reveal the earliest known evidence of snail-meal prep, suggesting ancient humans cooked and shared the mollusks.

  4. An image of a Native American man standing next to a brown horse while other brown horses mill in the background.
    Anthropology

    Native Americans corralled Spanish horses decades before Europeans arrived

    Great Plains groups incorporated domestic horses into their cultures by the early 1600s, before Europeans moved north from Mexico.

  5. illustration showing rotting mean, fruit, vegetables and an animal carcass
    Anthropology

    A surprising food may have been a staple of the real Paleo diet: rotten meat

    The realization that people have long eaten putrid foods has archaeologists rethinking what Neandertals and other ancient hominids ate.

  6. Three long-tailed macaque monkeys appear to be pounding open oil plam nut with rocks.
    Archaeology

    Some monkeys accidentally make stone flakes that resemble ancient hominid tools

    A study of Thailand macaques raises questions about whether some Stone Age cutting tools were products of planning or chance.

  7. An artistic portrayal of a southeastern European hunter-gatherer from the Gravettian culture. The man has dark skin and dark hair. He is wearing a skull cap, necklace and a fur shawl.
    Archaeology

    Ancient DNA unveils disparate fates of Ice Age hunter-gatherers in Europe

    Ancient DNA unveils two regional populations that lived in what is now Europe and made similar tools but met different fates.

  8. A closeup photo of a small semi-transparent stone in the shape of an arrowhead held between a person's index finger and thumb.
    Archaeology

    Homo sapiens may have brought archery to Europe about 54,000 years ago

    Small stone points found in a French rock-shelter could have felled prey only as tips of arrows shot from bows, scientists say.

  9. composite image of stone tool artifacts on a black background
    Anthropology

    Hominids used stone tool kits to butcher animals earlier than once thought

    Finds in Kenya push Oldowan tool use back to around 2.9 million years ago, roughly 300,000 years earlier than previous evidence.

  10. rows of pots and other vessels used in an Egyptian embalming workshop seen in an archaeological site
    Archaeology

    Chemical residue reveals ancient Egyptians’ mummy-making mixtures

    Chemical clues in embalming vessels reveal previously unknown ingredients used to prepare bodies for mummification and their far-flung origins.

  11. An underwater photo of a replica sunken merchant ship with a scuba diver swimming above.
    Archaeology

    Complex supply chains may have appeared more than 3,000 years ago

    Finds from one of the world’s oldest shipwrecks hint that miners in Central Asia and Turkey provided a crucial metal to Mediterranean rulers.

  12. the Maya site Aguada Fénix as mapped by lasers, showing a rectangular ceremonial site oriented toward sunrise, surrounded by other structures and faint markings that may be roads
    Archaeology

    Lasers reveal sites used as the Americas’ oldest known star calendars

    By around 3,100 years ago, Mesoamerican ritual complexes tracked celestial cycles using a 260-day count, a huge lidar mapping project shows.