News in Brief

  1. Neuroscience

    Hints of how the brain “sees” dreams emerge

    Nerve cells that make sense of visual input keep chugging away during REM sleep, suggesting that these cells may help a sleeper “see” dreams.

    By Laura Sanders
  2. Astronomy

    Faint red stars can build water worlds drip by drip

    Rocky planets around faint red stars have a hard time getting water, but they’re still probably the most common habitable locales in the Milky Way, new computer simulations suggest.

    By Christopher Crockett
  3. Animals

    Parasitic wasp larva gets more than a meal from its spider host

    Parasitic wasps coerce spiders to construct strong supports for cocoons.

    By Sarah Schwartz
  4. Materials Science

    Buckyballs turn on copper’s magnetism

    Exposure to buckyballs bestows ironlike magnetic properties onto the normally nonmagnetic metals copper and manganese.