* Astronomy

Using big science to find tiny clues for life on Mars

For 10 days out of the month, UC Davis graduate student Amy Williams gets to wake up on Mars. Along with the several hundred other members of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team, Williams synchronises to the rhythm of the Curiosity rover's workday as it scours the surface of Gale Crater some 140 million miles from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's mission control centre in Pasadena, Calif.
Williams, who spends the other 20 days of the month as a doctoral candidate in UC Davis' geology department, says that the chance for students to participate in this kind of "big science" is closer than many might think.
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