{"id":77455,"date":"2026-02-28T09:31:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=77455"},"modified":"2026-02-28T09:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:31:44","slug":"science-news-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=77455","title":{"rendered":"Science News (February 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have a few good articles this month and even one that isn&#8217;t in biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We&#8217;ll start with that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/unsinkable-metal-tubes-superhydrophobic-surfaces-691642\/\">one <\/a>which talks about developing <strong>aluminum tubes that are unsinkable<\/strong>. The tubes are treated by etching onto their interior surfaces microscopically tiny pits. These pits collectively trap a stable bubble of air in them, conferring onto the interior surface hydrophobic properties that repel water. This is the team&#8217;s latest iteration of a device they&#8217;ve demonstrated previously with improved resilience, being able to continue to float despite severe damage and even when inserted vertically into the water. The applications for this technology are obvious but of course who knows if it&#8217;s too expensive to be scaled up.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The next <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2514496-vegan-toddlers-can-grow-at-the-same-rate-as-omnivores\/\">paper <\/a>is likely to ruffle some feathers. While <strong>vegan diets<\/strong> for adults are generally considered to be healthy provided they are well-planned, it&#8217;s much less clear how being on such a diet would affect infants. This study shows that infants raised in meat-free families do seem to fall behind in their growth and development at the beginning. Yet by around age 2, their growth usually catches up and differences seem to even out. This seems to suggest that meat-free diets are generally safe for infants but we still have little data on long-term development.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finally here&#8217;s an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/science-and-technology\/2026\/02\/11\/humans-are-not-the-only-animals-that-treat-each-others-injuries\">article <\/a>that highlights the fact that humans are not the only species that are able to <strong>treat the injuries of our fellows<\/strong>. The other species in question here are ants. Depending on the species, they are able to rescue injured comrades from the battlefield and use their tongues to clean their wounds with goo that has antimicrobial properties. Others are able to perform amputations, sacrificing injured limbs to save the ant. Indeed the ants seem to be able to perform triage, periodically checking the wounded if see if their wounds have been infected and either expelling them from the nest or giving them additional care as needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have a few good articles this month and even one that isn&#8217;t in biology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77455"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77494,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77455\/revisions\/77494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}