ABSTRACT
The shell model was applied to nuclei immediately after the realization that their building blocks are protons and neutrons. Theoretical physicists at that time had before their eyes a very successful shell model. The picture of electrons moving independently in a central potential well, due to the positively charged nucleus and obeying the Pauli principle, accounted very well for atomic structure. The filling of electron shells in atoms reproduced remarkably well the periodic table of elements. Without real knowledge of nuclear interactions, physicists tried to apply the shell model also to nuclei.
