Infectious Futures: Stories of the post-antibiotic apocalypse

In 2015, we commissioned six stories about a future facing up to the challenge of antibiotic resistance called Infectious Futures: Stories of the post-antibiotic apocalypse as part of a much larger effort to publicise, educate, and enrich the conversation around the subject. These stories, originally in print form, will be uploaded as blogs, one at a time and published below. For enquiries about the booklet or to order a paper copy, please email [email protected].

This anthology visualises a dystopian future where initiatives like the Longitude Prize have come to nothing. These stories are a meditation on the dark side of evolution. Resistance is inevitable, perhaps the most depressing implication of the revolutionary ideas of Charles Darwin. When treatment with an antibiotic begins, non-resistant bacteria are wiped out, leaving resistant cells to thrive.