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Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations
Not yet published
Expected 18 Aug 26A wondrous, eye-opening exploration of the surprising ways life is interconnected
Everything on earth hinges on animals and bacteria, the soil and its microbes, plants and the molecules floating in the air. Though many of these partnerships are subtle, life as we know it wouldn’t exist without them.
In Togetherness, evolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper leads us into the fascinating, otherworldly spaces where these relationships, known as symbiosis, occur—the earth’s rich underbrush, murky ocean depths, the human body’s complex architecture—to uncover the poetry of life’s greatest collaborations. Moths rely on sloths for reproduction, orchids partner with fungi, and humans negotiate our own relationships with the biosphere, all illustrating William Blake’s claim that “Every thing that lives / Lives not alone.”
Dazzling, immensely clever, and suffused with wonder, Togetherness illuminates ideas about evolution, agriculture, climate change, sustainability, and humanity, explaining why symbiosis is such an important key to understanding ourselves and the world beyond.
Everything on earth hinges on animals and bacteria, the soil and its microbes, plants and the molecules floating in the air. Though many of these partnerships are subtle, life as we know it wouldn’t exist without them.
In Togetherness, evolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper leads us into the fascinating, otherworldly spaces where these relationships, known as symbiosis, occur—the earth’s rich underbrush, murky ocean depths, the human body’s complex architecture—to uncover the poetry of life’s greatest collaborations. Moths rely on sloths for reproduction, orchids partner with fungi, and humans negotiate our own relationships with the biosphere, all illustrating William Blake’s claim that “Every thing that lives / Lives not alone.”
Dazzling, immensely clever, and suffused with wonder, Togetherness illuminates ideas about evolution, agriculture, climate change, sustainability, and humanity, explaining why symbiosis is such an important key to understanding ourselves and the world beyond.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication August 18, 2026
About the author
Rowan Hooper
9 books19 followersRowan Hooper is Managing Editor of New Scientist magazine, where he has spent more than ten years writing about all aspects of science.
He has a PhD in evolutionary biology, and worked as a biologist in Japan for five years, before joining the Japan Times newspaper in Tokyo, and later taking up a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin.
Two collections of his long-running column for the paper have been published in Japan, and his work has also appeared in The Economist, Guardian, Wired and the Washington Post.
He lives in London with his partner and two daughters.
He has a PhD in evolutionary biology, and worked as a biologist in Japan for five years, before joining the Japan Times newspaper in Tokyo, and later taking up a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin.
Two collections of his long-running column for the paper have been published in Japan, and his work has also appeared in The Economist, Guardian, Wired and the Washington Post.
He lives in London with his partner and two daughters.
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