Erik Vance

Erik Vance, a former Bay Area science writer, recently migrated to Mexico City. He has written for Nature, Discover, and The New York Times. He's not fitted with a radio tag, so we won't know where he goes next.

Tag, You’re It!

October 4, 2011 •  by

The hawk trackers of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory go way beyond birding: These citizen scientists take to the highways and back roads, following radio-tagged birds that may roam just to the next valley, or all the way to Mexico. Along the way, the hawk trackers have contributed much to our knowledge of these well-traveled birds.

School of Rock

July 1, 2010 •  by

Berkeley native Erik Vance first encountered the rocks of the East Bay hills as a teenager looking for excitement. For a century, geologists at UC Berkeley have used them to teach geologic mapping, in the process unraveling the complex geology of our hills. And for decades pioneering rock climbers learned techniques here that they took with them to the Sierra and beyond.

In the Key of Bee

April 1, 2009 •  by

Gordon Frankie has an obsession, and he hopes it’s contagious: In gardens around the Bay Area, dozens of species of native bees, many nothing like the more familiar but nonnative honeybee, await your discovery, and your help.