Think back to when you were a young child. It is deep summer and you’re playing outside on a hot afternoon.

Your parents offer you two options: You and your friend can make a pretend lemonade stand and sell the pretend lemony drink for pretend money. The other option is the real deal: real, tangy lemonade and real money. Which would you choose?

The answer is pretty clear, right? You’d want to do the real thing.

University of Virginia students arose Tuesday to warm weather, sunny skies and the first day of the academic year.

The bustle across Grounds began in the early hours, as students found their way to 8 a.m. classes. For many, it was the very first time they would be stepping foot inside a college classroom.

First-year student Maggie Trundle, a Charlottesville native, was excited to be heading to her microeconomics class with Ken Elzinga, the popular and beloved Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics.

Over the weekend, more than 3,800 students in the University of Virginia’s new first-year class converged on Grounds, meeting new roommates, hauling mini-fridges and plastic bins and gradually settling into their new home.

These new ’Hoos come from around the commonwealth and around the world, representing 47 U.S. states and 73 countries. Over the coming months, they will begin to make this community their own as they meet new friends, pursue new subjects and get involved with clubs, sports teams and other student groups.

Nearly 100 University of Virginia professors and graduate teaching instructors met Aug. 14 near the statue of Homer to share ideas about how to discuss with their students the divisive issues of white supremacy and racism brought to the fore during violent demonstrations on Grounds and in Charlottesville a few days earlier.

The gathering was arranged when a group of instructors overseeing the College of Arts & Sciences’ civic and community engagement classes decided to broaden their small training session into an open meeting for their colleagues.

For Philip Bourne, a leading data science researcher and the new director of the University of Virginia’s Data Science Institute, mining today’s massive data sets for truth and wisdom – and then sharing that insight with others – is an abiding passion.

Bourne came to the University in May from the National Institutes of Health, where he led a major program to coordinate analysis of biomedical research and make it publicly available to international researchers.

Leaving for college is a transformational experience in a young person’s life. One night, a student is home with family, in familiar surroundings. The next, they are part of a new community, living in a new place, often on their own for the first time.

The University of Virginia is unveiling new programming for incoming students, with a raft of free offerings designed to make a safe, fun welcome to the University.

Formerly known simply as fall orientation, “Wahoo Welcome” coincides with move-in weekend, Aug. 18 and 19, when members of the Class of 2021, transfer and graduate students arrive in droves to residence halls and other living quarters around Grounds.

Adding another reason for doctors to avoid the overuse of antibiotics, new research shows that a reduction in the variety of microbes in the gut interferes with the immune system’s ability to fight off disease.

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have found that antibiotic use made neutrophils, a type of immune cell, less effective in fighting infections and weakened the intestinal barrier against invading bugs.