  The development of nuclear shapes under the extreme conditions of high spin
and/or temperature is examined. Scaling properties are used to demonstrate
universal properties of both thermal expectation values of nuclear shapes as
well as the minima of the free energy, which can be used to understand the
Jacobi transition. A universal correlation between the width of the giant
dipole resonance and quadrupole deformation is found, providing a novel probe
to measure the nuclear deformation in hot nuclei.
