Highlights of short baseline physics at a neutrino factory

We review the physics potential for experiments with intense neutrino beams at the front-end of a muon storage ring, stressing the way the spin and flavour structure of neutrino interactions with matter can be used to shed light on the structure of the strong and electroweak interactions. Specifically, we discuss precision tests of the standard model, studies of polarized and unpolarized structure functions of the nucleon, and several new and exotic physics items.