Dana Burton is a PhD Candidate at George Washington University. Her research follows NASA scientists' search for life on Mars and the ways scientists come to grapple with and even redefine how they understand life of Earth. Her work centers the microbe as a figure around which questions of biology, forward and back contamination, and the practice of science emerger. She is also interested in NASA's engagement with the public and how different publics may be affected by the search for life in outer space.