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We revisit the issue of solar abundances and examine whether the updated abundances result in solar models that have structures that agree with the structure of the Sun as determined by helioseismology. We quantify the changes in opacity required to bring the models constructed with the newer solar abundances in agreement with the Sun.

The minimum between solar cycles 23 and 24 was quite unusual compared with other minima for which detailed data are available and this pointed to the possibility that cycle 24 will be unusual. Cycle 24 is almost at its maximum now and we take this opportunity to compare and contrast the solar rotation rate and zonal flows between the two cycles. We find that the rotation rate during cycle 24 is slightly lower than that during cycle 23. Additionally we find that the poleward branch of the zonal flow that is believed to be the harbinger of the next solar cycle is very week in cycle 24.

We use available GONG and MDI data to study how solar zonal flows evolved over cycle 23 and whether or not there were differences between the minima of cycles 23 and 24. An autocorrelation study shows that as far as the zonal-flows are concerned, cycle 23 lasted for about 11.7 years, considerably shorter than what is seen from magnetic indices. We also find that there were significant differences in the nature of the flows between the minima of cycles 23 and 24.