Evolution of nuclear physics of stable nuclei and journey to the unstables

An attempt has been made to highlight the developments taking place in certain areas of nuclear physics research during the last few decades with special emphasis on the research using the heavy ion nuclear beams. The phenomena of nuclear fusion and fission involving large scale nuclear dynamics still pose a challenge for a complete theoretical understanding. Another field of research which is fast evolving is the study of the nuclei lying far away from the beta stability line. The production of these nuclei requires state of art technology in accelerators and other instrumentation, and there is world-wide effort to build radioactive nuclear beam facilities to carry out research in these areas.This field is going to hold the centre stage of nuclear physics research in the coming years, with the exciting possibilities of synthesizing and studying the neutron and proton rich nuclei extending up to the drip lines, and superheavy elements in the Z=114-126 region