[en] Various aspects of light ion direct reactions which have been discussed in the recent literature are reviewed, with particular emphasis on polarization experiments. Various experiments which show particular sensitivity to finite-range effects are discussed, including experiments with tensor-polarized deuteron beams. It is suggested that the observation of such effects may yield information about the D-state part of the deuteron and triton wave functions. Other new types of experiments concern direct reactions where the outgoing particles are in a resonant final state. Examples of reactions induced by polarized beams are illustrated for one- and two-nucleon transfer. Polarization-transfer has applications to sources of polarized neutrons, to observation of D-state effects and to measurements of magnetic moments of the residual nucleus. Progress and problems with the optical potential for deuterons and tritons are noted. (auth.)