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AT THE Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, physicists are used to looking for signs of particle decay in the detectors. But as they were digitising archival photos of particle collisions, Matteo Volpi and Jean-Yves LeMeur came across a different kind of decay: mould.

For 30 years, this slide was exposed to a mould that marched across the image, eating through the protein in the gelatin-based emulsion. The resulting chemical reactions left a chaotic swirl of colours and textures reminiscent of an abstract painting. To save the corroded image as it is now, Volpi and LeMeur shone a light through…