Nuclear Physics from QCD

“After many decades of effort, the qualitative study of nuclear physics and the interactions of individual baryons and mesons gave rise in the early 1970s to the fundamental theory of Quantum Chromodynamics, describing the underlying interactions of quarks and gluons.  Now the question is whether the study of QCD can lead to a better and more quantitative understanding of nuclear physics.    This endeavor has led theorists to develop powerful tools, such as lattice QCD and effective field theory; but the intellectual journey has also led theorists to surprising places in their attempts to make progress, such as atomic traps, the early universe, worlds with far more particles than our own, and extra dimensions.”