Bruce Bower
Science News
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Past articles by Bruce:
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. → Read More
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. → Read More
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. → Read More
Hominids used stone toolkits 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. → Read More
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. → Read More
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. → Read More
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. → Read More
Homo naledi may have lit fires in caves at least 236,000 years ago
Homo naledi may have joined the group of ancient hominids who built controlled fires, presumably for light or warmth, new finds hint. → Read More
Some Maya rulers may have taken generations to attract subjects
Commoners slowly granted authority to kings at the ancient Maya site of Tamarindito, researchers suspect. → Read More
King Tut’s tomb still has secrets to reveal 100 years after its discovery
More of Tut’s story is poised to come to light in the coming years. Here are four things to know on the 100th anniversary of his tomb’s discovery. → Read More
Ancient DNA unveils Siberian Neandertals’ small-scale social lives
Females often moved into their mate’s communities, which totaled about 20 individuals, researchers say. → Read More
Drone photos reveal an early Mesopotamian city made of marsh islands
Urban growth around 4,600 years ago, near what is now southern Iraq, occurred on marshy outposts that lacked a city center. → Read More
Fossil finds put gibbons in Asia as early as 8 million years ago
Specimens from China raise questions about the evolutionary ID of an even older ape tooth from India. → Read More
The oldest known surgical amputation occurred 31,000 years ago
A young adult on the island of Borneo survived a lower left leg removal thanks to medically savvy rainforest surgeons. → Read More
Indigenous Americans ruled democratically long before the U.S. did
Oklahoma’s Muscogee people, among others, promoted rule by the people long before the U.S. Constitution was written. → Read More
7-million-year-old limb fossils may be from the earliest known hominid
An earlier report on one of the bones of a 7-million-year-old creature that may have walked upright has triggered scientific misconduct charges. → Read More
‘The Five-Million-Year Odyssey’ reveals how migration shaped humankind
A globe-trotting trek through history shows how past population migrations changed the course of human biology and culture. → Read More
Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance
Dealing with food shortages and infections over thousands of years, not widespread milk consumption, may be how an ability to digest dairy evolved. → Read More
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
Genetic clues point to a Late Stone Age trek from southwestern China to North America. → Read More
Britons’ tools from 560,000 years ago have emerged from gravel pits
A new study confirms that an archaeological site in southeastern England called Fordwich is one of the oldest hominid sites in the country. → Read More