As climate change becomes more and more a central issue in local, national, and international discussions, understanding the global carbon budget, and how it influences trends in global warming, will become increasingly crucial.

The carbon cycle is related to climate and climatic change because it controls carbon dioxide, the most important of the greenhouse gases. Dr. R. A. Houghton has authored a synthesis paper on the topic, summarizing what is known about the global carbon budget and why it is important. The work is featured in the current issue of the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science.

In the eternal conflict between friends and parents, friends will often win because they highlight the positive aspects of sex.

Parental communication more often than not focuses on the negative aspects of sex, write Marina Epstein and L. Monique Ward from The University of Michigan.

Juicing up your cell phone or iPod may take on a whole new meaning in the future. Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source - from soft drinks to tree sap - and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, they say.

For consumers, that could mean significantly longer time to talk and play music between charges. The new battery, which is also biodegradable, could eventually replace lithium ion batteries in many portable electronic applications, including computers, the scientists say.

A fundamental genetic mechanism that shuts down an important gene in healthy immune system cells has been discovered that could one day lead to new therapies against infections, leukemia and other cancers. Results of a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study on the mechanism, called a somatic stop-codon mutation, are being reported today in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Sales of herbal dietary supplements have skyrocketed by 100 percent in the United States during the last 10 years, but most people don’t consider evidence-based indications before using them, according to a University of Iowa study.

Two-thirds of people who use herbs don’t do so in accordance with guidelines, according to the article. Meanwhile, sales of herbal supplements reached $18.8 billion in 2003, up 100 percent from $8.8 billion in 1994. Those sales are subject to minimal federal regulations.

Researchers have discovered a new fact about hooded seals, a mysterious mammal that spends all but a few days each year in the ocean.

An international team of researchers led by Dr. David Coltman, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Alberta, have learned that all the hooded seal populations in the world share the same genetic diversity. The researchers reached their conclusions after analysis of more than 20 years of DNA samples taken from hundreds of hooded seals from around the world.

"These results mean that if you brought me a DNA sample of a hooded seal, I wouldn't be able to tell you where in the world you got that sample because of the genetic similarity between populations," Coltman said.