Methane (pronounced /ˈmɛθeɪn/ or /ˈmiːθeɪn/) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH₄. It is the simplest alkane, the main component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel. However, because it is a gas at normal conditions, methane is difficult to transport from its source.

Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas. The concentration of methane in the Earth's atmosphere in 1998, expressed as a mole fraction, was 1745 nmol/mol (parts per billion, ppb), up from 700 nmol/mol in 1750. By 2008, however, global methane levels, which had stayed mostly flat since 1998, had risen to 1800 nmol/mol.

Methane is a tetrahedral molecule with four equivalent C-H bonds. Its electronic structure is described by four bonding molecular orbitals (MOs) resulting from the overlap of the valence orbitals on C and H. The lowest energy MO is the result of the overlap of the 2s orbital on carbon with the in-phase combination of the 1s orbitals on the four hydrogen atoms. Above this level in energy is a triply degenerate set of MOs that involve overlap if the 2p orbitals on carbon with various linear combinations of the 1s orbitals on hydrogen. The resulting "three-over-one" bonding scheme is consistent with photoelectron spectroscopic measurements.

Paul Oldfield, born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, North West England, is better known by his stage name Mr. Methane. He is a British flatulist or "professional farter" who started performing in 1991; he briefly retired in 2006 but re-started in mid-2007; he claims to be the only performing professional flatulist in the world. He has worked on railroads before focusing on his flatulence performances.

According to When Will I Be Famous? (2003), a BBC book on British variety acts, Oldfield discovered his ability at the age of fifteen when practising yoga. The next day he performed twenty rapid fire rasping farts in under a minute for a group of his friends. It became so popular he made it into a regular event.

In the late 1980s, Oldfield turned professional, performing as an opening act for the Macclesfield-based bands The Screaming Beavers and The Macc Lads. The latter wrote a song about him on their album The Beer Necessities. Oldfield subsequently traveled to New York, USA, where he appeared as a guest on the Howard Stern Show as the "British Blaster". While in New York, Mr. Methane also performed a series of farts on Broadway.

Peter Wadhams is professor of Ocean Physics, and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge. He is best known for his work on sea ice.

He is the president of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean Commission on Sea Ice and Co-ordinator for the International Programme for Antarctic Buoys.

Katey M. Walter is an Alaskan aquatic ecologist and biogeochemist researching carbon and nutrient cycling between terrestrial and aquatic systems, and the cryosphere and atmosphere.

Walter's research focuses on methane and carbon dioxide emissions from arctic and temperate lakes and wetlands in Alaska and Siberia, and the processes involved in greenhouse gas emissions from lakes, including thermokarst (permafrost thaw), industrial plant emissions, geology, and changes in lake area. By using environmental gradients, isotopes, and remote sensing as tools, she hopes for an improved understanding of the basic processes in lake ecosystems. Many newly-formed Arctic lakes have bacteria feeding on plant detritus previously frozen underground and producing methane as a waste product. Methane's contribution to the greenhouse effect is considerably more than that of carbon dioxide. Global warming extrapolations could be grossly underestimated if methane contributions from lakes have not been properly studied and are not taken into account. Studies of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica have shown that in the early Holocene Period, between 14 000 and 11 500 years ago, methane concentration in the atmosphere spiked and was from a northern source. These spikes would be cyclic, coinciding with and aggravating global warming.

Walter Anthony (February 13, 1872 in Stockton, CA – May 1, 1945 in Hollywood, CA) was a screenplay, titles and documentary film writer. Before Walter started writing in films he was a dramatic and musical critic for San Francisco Morning Call.