The songs of Blue Whales are changing and that is not good news. Scientists think the change is yet another sign of the impact of climate change on our environment. Researcher Dr Emmannelle Leroy explains why on Open House.

Adoption raises many sensitivities and concerns but it's time to talk about it. There are changes coming to adoption law in New South Wales and  moves to make state laws more consistent across Australia.  Two of Anglicare NSW's most experienced staff, Liz Byrne and Sue Madden, talked us through the current thinking on adoption and some touching personal insights into what it means for a child to have a family they know they will be with forever.

After getting hit by a huge dust storm Open House got to wondering where all that soil actually came from. Emeritus Academic in soil science from ANU, Dr Richard Green told us it is another sign the drought is very serious.

A national risk assessment has suggested platypus declines of up to 30% across its range since European settlement, with localised declines and extinctions increasingly reported. “We have great concerns about the future survival of this unique species,” says project leader Professor Richard Kingsford.

Professor Susan Rutland, Emeritus Professor of Religion from the University of Sydney spoke on Open House about her research on SRE. She says SRE is an import mechanism for children to find their identity and that to remove religion is to weaken multiculturalism in Australia.

Caritas Australia ended the year on a high note with a win for civil society and Australian democracy. They have proved that 'sometimes the good guys win' with the success of a campaign they spearheaded to change the provisions of a government bill.

Hold on to your hats! From next year there will be a metric makeover and the kilo will be defined by a number derived from Planck's Constant. So how can a number define mass? It is, as they say, complicated. Science communicator, Petr Lebedev ran Open House through the change.

Caritas Australia has released the State of the Environment for Oceania 2018 Report, Waters of life, Oceans of Mercy. The report contains dozens of first-person accounts and stories relating to the impact of climate change on communities from Papua New Guinea and Kiribati to Tonga, Samoa and the Carteret Islands.