Michael Kossin’s Science Photography in Bloomberg Magazine

Michael Kossin is an MSc candidate in subatomic physics at the University of Manitoba with a passion and talent for capturing photographs in the lab. His natural colour long-exposure photograph of  the FrPNC laboratory at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics, caught the eye of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine where it is now showcased, paired with the element francium, in the magazine’s feature on the periodic table. Francium has no stable isotope, and only about 20 grams of this elusive element exist in all of Earth at any given time. The FrPNC collaboration, led by Manitoba physics professor Gerald Gwinner, uses a laser trap to capture francium atoms artificially produced in nuclear reactions at TRIUMF’s ISAC radioactive beam facility, for studies of the weak interaction. When the experiment operates, ISAC contains the largest concentration of francium on the planet.