Coccus Pocus 2023 Winning Stories
In autumn 2023, the University of Hull launched their annual scary story competition for Halloween: Coccus Pocus! The event was organised for a fifth time, following four successful runs. We supported the competition as part of our #BiofilmAware campaign, which is all about helping people to understand what biofilms are.
A fantastic network of Coccus Pocus Ambassadors grew from four members to fifteen, including new ambassadors from France, Greece, Malta and Denmark. In 2023, 10 stories were received in total, both from school children (12-17 group) and university students (18+ group).
The contestants were encouraged to write a short horror or sci-fi story between 500 and 2,000 words, including themes of antimicrobial resistance and/or microbial biofilms. The evaluation committee ranked stories according to the intrigue of their plot, use of language, character description and scientific soundness.
This years winners
Click on the links in italics to read each story.
18+ group
1st place: Neelabh Datta from Asutosh College (affiliated to University of Calcutta, India) for his story Resistant Horror (awarded a £100 Amazon voucher).
2nd place: Megan Poxon from the University of Warwick (UK) for her story Police Report (also awarded a £30 Amazon voucher).
3rd place: Mohamed Nasleem Yoosuf from Sheffield Hallam University (UK) for his tale The Whispering Biofilm: A Tale of Science and Monstrous Ambition (also awarded a £20 Amazon voucher).
Megan Poxon from the University of Warwick was awarded 2nd place in the 18+ group.
12-17 group
1st place: Rebecca Balbes from St Peter’s Catholic School, Surrey for her tale Parasitic (also awarded a £100 Amazon voucher).
2nd place: Patrick Renton from St Peter’s Catholic School, Surrey for his story Long Forgotten Lingerers (also awarded a £30 Amazon voucher).
3rd place: James Finn from St Peter’s Catholic School, Surrey for his tale The Biofilm Monster (also awarded a £20 Amazon voucher).
The winners will be also presented in the May 2024 issue of Microbiology Today, the magazine of the Microbiology Society, which has at least 6,000 subscribers.
The competition organisers aspire that the competition will be held again and again around the country, and even abroad, aiming to increase public awareness about the important problem of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and biofilms and boost the enthusiasm of young people about the fascinating field of microbiology.
Coccus Pocus will run again in October 2024. Can you think of any biofilm or AMR-reIated scary stories? Would you like to be one of our Coccus Pocus Ambassadors for your school or university? Please contact Dr Georgios Efthimiou, Lead Organiser and Lecturer in Microbiology, University of Hull with any questions.