High-spin states have been studied in neutron-rich nuclei produced in deep-
inelastic collisions between a pulsed beam of Pb-208 ions and a U-238 targe
t. The structure of nuclei such as Hg-206, Pb-210 and Bi-211 has revealed n
ew information on the couplings of single-particle states to each other and
to the octupole-vibrational phonon, essential input to the nuclear shell m
odel. In addition, the first observations of high-spin states in U-237, U-2
39 and U-240 are compared to recent results for neighbouring plutonium nucl
ei.