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When Peter Smith was a kid growing up in Tucson Ariz., he and his friends would chase the dirty whirlwinds called dust devils that regularly spin across the nearby desert. "We used to run and stand in the dust devils," Smith told Current Science. Thirty years later, Smith is still chasing dust devils, only now as part of his job. Smith is a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona who is helping the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) get ready for the first manned mission to Mars. Giant dust devils swarm across the face of Mars year-round. NASA is worried about the potential of the whirlwinds to endanger that mission. So, for the past several summers, Smith and colleagues from the university have been tracking and measuring Arizona's dusty twister