What is nuclear physics Usually nuclear physics among non-physicists associates with nuclear power and nuclear weapon. Actually it is not all about these issues. It do has relations with these issues but only in terms of applications. From the view point of nuclear physicist nuclear power is just set of consequences of the one particular reaction, for example division of Uranium nucleus. And that nuclear reaction is described in terms of nuclear physics. But nuclear physics also describes a lot of phenomena. It contains many fundamental laws and subjects, it has many branches, it is much wider than one usually could think. And energetic applications (power and weapon) are just few of many. Again from the point of view of scientist nuclear power station and nuclear bombs are just inventions which were developed many years ago. The theoretical foundations of these applications are well established now and actually not so interesting among nuclear physicists. There are many other challenges. For example we don't even know exactly what is the nucleus. By now we have a few models like shell model, liquid drop model and cluster model. All these models simulate the properties of nuclei but only within certain range. Each model has own domain. But we don't have yet any model which can describe all picture, only that universal model would be able to show us what is the atomic nucleus. And it is only one of many great problems which nuclear physicists are trying to solve now. So, it happens that from the vast amount of problems which are solving by one particular field of science, only few applications become popular among the people. Particularly, one should know that nuclear physics doesn't only refer to power and weapon. In general it explores nuclei the smallest part of the atom. _______________________ If you find any errors please correct, I would appreciate it very much, as well as your comments, rates ("interesting" or "not interesting" on the corner bellow) or any questions. Thank You! Chingiz, M.S. in Physics. _______________________