Dan Lewis Department of Materials Science and Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY 12180 Delmar Presbyterian Church recently made a simple change with surprisingly big implications: we switched from disposable coffee cups to ceramic mugs. On the surface, it seems obvious that reusable mugs are better for the environment than disposable cups. But one of the interesting lessons from sustainability research is that the answer is rarely as simple as it first appears. A classic...

Holy Week is upon us again and I have a question. What do parenting Gen Z and Holy Week have in common? Bear with me here. Even if you're not trying to parent a Gen Z teen right now, you're probably aware of some of the anxieties around it. Gone is the school of hard knocks and just rubbing dirt on it, replaced by helicopter parents and participation trophies. Whatever your feelings are on those topics, and I'm sure that this is eliciting some strong responses, they both come from a...

This essay was written by Nancy Dunlop, Ph.D. They’re simply called, “the monks.” They number anywhere from 19-24 monks at any given time. And all they are doing is walking. That’s it. So far, they’ve walked through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They are currently making their way through Virginia, then on to Maryland, and finally, Washington D.C. Their walk will total 2,300 miles. They began Oct. 26 and intend to reach D.C on Feb. 10....