Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Hovering blue flames that flicker over bogs and marshes have inspired ghostly folktales for centuries. Known as “will-o’-the-wisp, ...

SAN FRANCISCO — Seafloor-dwelling bacteria may hitch a ride on methane bubbles seeping from deep-sea vents, preventing the methane from reaching the atmosphere by eating it up, new research suggests.

For several days, bloggers and journalists have been passing around a news story about how the BP oil disaster will unleash a “giant methane bubble” and initiate a mass extinction. Yes, it’s a myth.

Methane is a highly potent and insidious greenhouse gas that is continuing to surprise scientists with not just where it can come from, but the quantities with which it is leaking into the atmosphere.

(CNN) — Hovering blue flames that flicker over bogs and marshes have inspired ghostly folktales for centuries. Known as “will-o’-the-wisp,” “jack-o’-lantern,” “corpse candle” and “ignis fatuus” ...