University of Bradford PhD student Emma Newton is playing a part in helping NASA’s planned exploration of Mars in 2005, a trip which many people hope will lead to discovering life on the planet. Emma works in the Department of Chemical and Forensic Sciences studying lichens and cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) for the purpose of understanding the survival strategies adopted by life in the Antarctic. Scientists at NASA hope this type of work will provide a basis for studying any life forms on Mars, as the Antarctic provides one of the nearest Earth analogues to Mars.