While methane accounts for about 16% of the abundance in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases—which also include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, water vapor—it is more than 25 times better than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. Two-thirds of global methane release is believed to be through natural emission during anaerobic activity of primitive single-celled microorganisms called archaea. Understanding the precise mechanism by which archaea produce methane could lead to technology that reduces methane production by archaea and helps in the fight against global warming.