An awe-inspiring exploration of how symbiosis can change the way we understand our world, ourselves and our future
From evolution to capitalism, ‘survival of the fittest’ has shaped our view of the world. But we got it wrong – and our mistake has brought us to the brink.
For the history of life on Earth is much more than a story of competition. The natural world has been forged and sustained by small miracles of co-operation between animals and plants, insects and fungi, fish and bacteria – these partnerships are ubiquitous, lifelong and are an essential guide for a better future.
In Togetherness, Rowan Hooper reveals the intimate connectedness of nature through these remarkable stories of symbiosis. From the female wasp venturing deep inside a fig and the intricate relationship between corals and the algae that sustain them to the symbiotic gut microbes that influence our moods, he explores how co-operation is fundamental to life itself and to protecting our shared future.
Togetherness will change the way you see the world, our place in it – and our obligation to its hidden wonders.
About the Author
DR ROWAN HOOPER is a biologist and an award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster. A senior editor at New Scientist magazine, he is the creator and host of New Scientist’s hit weekly podcast, The World, the Universe and Us. After gaining a PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Sheffield, he moved to Japan and worked as a field biologist.
He is the author of Superhuman: Life at the Extremes of Mental and Physical Ability, which was a Sunday Times Book of the Year, and How to Spend a Trillion Dollars. His articles have been published in New Scientist and the Japan Times as well as the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, the Financial Times and the Economist. He lives in London with his partner and their two daughters.
Industry Reviews
I think this may be one of those rare books that's a classic upon its publication. It calmly and comprehensively helps you see the world in a very new and hopeful way, and I think the insights apply to our social and political life. We were, all of us, built for contact
Bill McKibben
Absolutely enthralling. I was hooked from the first sentence
Bill Bryson
An awe-inspiring journey . . . An exposé of our unbreakable connections with all life on Earth
Alex Antonelli
A clarion call for cooperation at a time when competition, chaos and cruelty seem to rule the day . . . This is a joyful book, of hope and wonder, which celebrates community as the true key to success in nature
Steve Brusatte
Togetherness is the most important book I’ve read for years. Richly layered, thrilling, intellectually wide-ranging and so fascinating with evocative imagery and warm prose which brings the science and the world to vivid life and offers a crucial and urgent intervention on our mistaken and inadequate understanding of life and its entangled, enmeshed, webby, netty, symbiotic togetherness . . . Utterly stunning and awe-inspiring. Everyone needs to read this book, now!
Lucy Jones
Who would have thought that so much of life depends on mutual interaction between species? This fascinating story of togetherness takes us through multiple forms of symbiosis in the natural world. From gut bacteria to fungi, algal bloom, deep-sea hydrothermal vents and ourselves, Hooper brings co-operation and teamwork to the fore in an upbeat and friendly narrative, rich in history and biological knowledge. A super book
Janet Browne
This book has both scientific chops and beautiful storytelling
Rebecca Solnit
Tremendous – a panorama, or cyclorama, or cosmorama of life
Philip Pullman
This book reshapes our ideas about science, nature and ourselves. The revelations in this book made me rethink the world'
Chris Packham
The threads of all life on Earth are tightly woven together, and this book is a beautiful guide to that astonishing tapestry. Full of fascinating detail, it makes a compelling argument that there’s more to life than a winner-takes-all survival of the fittest. You will never see yourself, or the world around you, in the same way again
Helen Czerski
