What are nuclear molecules? past and present

A brief history of nuclear molecules, which were discovered for the first t ime in 1960, is presented. A couple of simple models for their description are discussed, as the "Double Resonance Mechanisms" and the "Two-Center She ll Model". These classical nuclear molecules live only about the order of 1 0(-21) sec, barely sufficient to orbit once around each other. Recently, a new type of nuclear molecules was discovered, with three clusters, which li ve of the order of 10(-13) sec! We discuss shortly the experiment and the c onclusions of it. At the end, we present a geometric model and apply it to Sr-96 + Be-10 + Ba-146 observed in the cold fission decay of Cf-252.