Why is the sea salty? The short answer is that water dissolves the salts contained in rocks, and these salts are carried in the water to the sea. We take a look at the science.

Starting in September, Australians will have the opportunity to vote on the issue of same-sex marriage in Australia via a postal survey. There’s a lot of information to take in and not all of the language is easy to understand. We’ve collated everything we know about the survey right here.

With the meteoric rise in popularity of Ethereum, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are back in the news again. Graphics card prices have soared with the promise that those who have the computers and know-how to do some serious mining can take home huge sums in a Bitcoin-like gold rush to snatch up as much virtual currency as possible. But how easy is it to make your fortune in cryptocurrency? And is it worth your while getting started?

The recent online piracy debate in Australian courtrooms has raised many questions about how consumers are being monitored. Just what sort of trail do you leave behind when you use technology to access illegal copies of movies and other copyrighted material?

Even if you can correctly identify the main parts beneath your car bonnet, you probably don't know how all those complex systems work. Here are ten fantastic videos that explain the basics - made by the car manufacturers themselves. Want to know how drum brakes work? Clutch transmissions? Car suspension? 4WD? Rotary engines? You'll find all the answers here.

Computer specs can be a baffling mix of acronyms and numbers at the best of times, but it's worth learning something about them: It will help you choose a new computer, troubleshoot your old computer, and generally understand more about the relationship between the specs on the page and the experience you're getting.

The deep web and its inner recess, the dark web — those less well-trodden parts of the internet beyond the reach of Google and Bing — are not for the faint-hearted or untrained. With the right tools, however, there's little to fear and plenty to discover. Here's how you can start exploring the deep web without having to worry about your digital well-being.

In terms of morning comfort food, nothing approaches the pancake. It's literally a food blanket that says "come here, my child, and let me wrap you in my warm, carby body. You are safe now." Almost every culture seems to have its own version of the breakfast staple, and we've rounded up some of the most delicious ways to eat them, whether you call them "flapjacks," "pancakes," or "crepes."

Malicious software on popular mobile platforms such as iOS and Android is at best a nuisance and at worst a security threat to individuals and businesses. Known as malware, some perpetrators use it to infect apps and get inside your smartphone. Why do they do it? Money, mostly.

The problem with most blockchain "explainers" is that they provide more detail than what matters to most people, using language that is foreign to most people, which winds up leaving people more confused than when they started. Instead, without worrying about being a technically perfect description, here's an explanation of blockchain your parents could understand.

One of the biggest hassles with having multiple computing devices is being able to access your data in the office, at home and when travelling. Back in the 1990s, when I started working in IT, Microsoft had a crack at this with the Briefcase feature that was part of Windows 95 but it was pretty poor.

By the mid to late 2000s, cloud storage services came to the fore, making it easy to access up to date versions of our workfiles wherever and whenever we wanted. But how do we use these services and get the most out of them?

Mathematics is all around us, and it has shaped our understanding of the world in countless ways. The following 17 equations changed the course of history - we explain what they mean.

The decisions we make in life often come down to Bayes' Theorem, but most of us don't even realise what it is. So how does it work?

Wine is spoiled grape juice. It's old squished grapes mixed with yeast that gets you drunk. But a lot of people have a lot of things to say about wine, and maybe you've wondered what it is that gets them so jazzed over rotten grapes. Well, a lot of their enjoyment comes from biology, chemistry and psychology, as well as the kinds of molecules that travel from the glass into your body.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) are increasing in popularity amongst internet users. But what the heck are they?

There’s nothing quite like the sound of snoring as the ultimate sleep interrupter. But snoring can be more than just a frustration to those in your vicinity. Sometimes snoring is linked to more serious health problems, such as obstructive sleep apnoea. An emerging line of research suggests snoring may directly contribute to cardiovascular health problems.

After thousands of years of trying, mathematicians are still working out the number known as pi or “π”. We typically think of pi as approximately 3.14 but the most successful attempt to calculate it more precisely worked out its value to over 13 trillion digits after the decimal point. We have known since the 18th century that we will never be able to calculate all the digits of pi because it is an irrational number, one that continues forever without any repeating pattern. But there is a semblance of order to all that "random" chaos.

While we often get hung up on matters of privacy and security when it comes to the actions of governments and law enforcement, there’s also the matter of privacy at work. Can your boss snoop on your email? What about CCTV footage? How about listening into phone calls? Legislative and ethical challenges abound.

Sexuality is a means of pleasure, fulfilment and intimate connection with other humans. But it can also be a source of anguish. So it’s perhaps no surprise that of all the areas in health care, the “STI check” is one of the most fraught.