In this talk I'll discuss two useful theorems of Lubin and Tate. The first is a powerful lemma that allows for the construction of formal group laws from thin air - and allows us to classify all formal groups over algebraically closed fields of characteristic p (it also has applications in class field theory). The second theorem classifies deformations of formal group laws. This is an ambitious plan, but I'll try to prove at least the first theorem in full. Finally, to bring culture to a savage lot, I'll indicate how the above gets used in algebraic topology. The talk will be at a fairly elementary level, since the speaker is in over his head.