First results from the FINUDA experiment

This paper provides a summary of the first results obtained by the FINUDA Collaboration in the field of hypernuclear physics. They range from the spectroscopic study of several A-hypernuclei to the observation of some non-mesonic decay modes. Hints on rare hypernuclear two-body decays, on neutron-rich hypernuclei and on deeply-bound kaonic nuclei are also reported.