Imaging nuclei by smashing them at high energies: how are their shapes revealed after destruction?

Abstract: High-energy nuclear collisions has recently emerged as a powerful ``imaging-by-smashing'' tool to reveal the global shapes of atomic nuclei. Here, I layout a conceptual framework for this technique, explaining how nuclear shapes are encoded during quark-gluon plasma formation and evolution, and how they can be decoded from final-state particle distributions. I highlight the method's potential to advance our understanding of both nuclear structure and quark-gluon plasma physics.