Opened in 2016, the Francis Crick Institute focuses on interdisciplinary and trans-departmental collaborations and integrates knowledge from different disciplines. The institute is in partnership with the following six scientific research organizations: Cancer Research UK, Imperial College London, King’s College London, the Medical Research Council, University College London, and the Wellcome Trust. Home to 1,250 scientists, it is the largest biomedical research institution in Europe.

Artist Ting-Tong Chang took part in one of the Francis Crick Institute’s research projects in 2017, whereby he was invited to respond to the institute’s scientific studies through the perspective of art. Entangling reality and fiction, Kosmos departs from the microscopic view in scientist Ravi Desai’s archaea project and then transitions into a 19th century naturalist out exploring nature. It then concludes with a cosmic solar eclipse. Divided into two axes, Kosmos shows the shift from earlier single-investigator scientific approach conducted out in nature to engage in the pursuit of macro universal truths to the current trend with internationalized and globalized transnational research institutions, where scientists use expensive equipment and carry out intricately delegated tasks to conduct experiments in sterile vacuum laboratories in order to explore truths in the microscopic world.