Coccus Pocus 2022 Georgios Efthimiou
The microbiology-inspired scary story competition about biofilms and antimicrobial resistance has returned once again.
Winners in the 18+ group. From left to right: Katrina Crompton (First Prize), Solange Amigues (Second Prize) and Conchita Fraguas Bringas (Third Prize).
I n September 2022, the Centre for Biomedicine at Hull York Medical School in the UK launched an exciting and scary story competition for Halloween called Coccus Pocus 2022. The competition was supported by the National Biofilms Innovation Centre as part of their #BiofilmAware campaign, aimed at educating people about biofilms and why they are important. A growing network of 15 creative academics and researchers from around the world offered to serve as Coccus Pocus Ambassadors, promoting the event at their institutions. This was the fourth year that the competition was held, and it attracted a large number of intriguing entries from the UK and beyond. Contestants were encouraged to write a short horror sci-fi story between 500 and 2,000 words that included themes of antimicrobial resistance and/or microbial biofilms. The story evaluation committee ranked the stories based on the intrigue of their plot, the use of language, character description, and scientific accuracy. The winners from the 18+ group were: The first prize (a £100 Amazon voucher) was awarded to Katrina Crompton from the University of Newcastle (UK). Her thrilling story, It Drifted, is about a space mission that goes terribly wrong after being attacked by a merciless Staphylococcus aureus biofilm! Second place: Solange Amigues from the University of Galway (Ireland) for her story The Fourth Stranger (awarded a £30 Amazon voucher). Third place: Conchita Fraguas Bringas from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) for her tale A Halloween Story (awarded a £20 Amazon voucher).
The winners from the 12–17 group were: The first prize (a £100 Amazon voucher) was awarded to Miffia Wong from St Peter’s Catholic School, Surrey, for her tale Biofilm Story. It is about an early career microbiologist who eats a sandwich in the lab and gets infected by a nasty mind-whispering bug!
Second place: Sam Gallagher from Lymm High School for his story They Get In (awarded a £30 Amazon voucher).
Third place: April Stanton from Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Bowdon, for her story Green Finger (awarded a £20 Amazon voucher).
Read all winning stories at microb.io/3XxBpDH .
Coccus Pocus will run again in September 2023! • Can you think of any biofilm- or AMR-related scary stories? • Would you like to be one of our Coccus Pocus Ambassadors? • And… which university or school will claim our next trophy?
Georgios Efthimiou Lecturer in Microbiology at Hull York Medical School, UK, and Pedagogy Editor
for Access Microbiology g.efthimiou@hull.ac.uk @g_efthimiou
41 Microbiology Today May 2023 | microbiologysociety.org
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