Rowan Hooper

Rowan Hooper

@rowhoop.bsky.social

Journalist and podcast host @newscientist.com. Former Tokyoite. Books: SUPERHUMAN (2018), HOW TO SPEND A TRILLION DOLLARS (2021), TOGETHERNESS (2026). すごい!

3.9K followers441 following2.9K posts

Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Amazon deforestation fell under Lula by 71%, to lowest level since satellite records began in 1988. There is a chance to save the most important biome on the planet

Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Encouraging that symbionts can re-colonise bleached corals and reverse dysbiosis. It’s sadly not going to save reefs from the ever-heating oceans www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.orgRapid coral bleaching recovery via symbiont transfer from healthy coralsCoral bleaching, the temperature-induced loss of dinoflagellate symbionts, is a major driver of global coral reef decline. Although corals can regain symbionts through repopulation of residual symbion...

Rowan Hooper reposted

becca grady
@beccagrady.bsky.social

New book review up over at @ecolit.bsky.social all about symbiosis and collaboration in @rowhoop.bsky.social 's new book Togetherness from @aaknopf.bsky.social 💚💚💚 ecolitbooks.com/2026/10/24/b...

ecolitbooks.comBook Review: Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations by Rowan Hooper : EcoLit BooksEvolutionary biologist Rowan Hooper’s latest book Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of the World’s Greatest Collaborations is full of fascinating stories
Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Robyn Williams’ Science Show on ABC is the world’s longest running science show! Thrilled to be on it talking about Togetherness www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

abc.net.auTogetherness - Symbiosis and the hidden story of life’s hidden collaborations - ABC listenNo more “Red In Tooth and Claw”? Well, that’s not the only story in evolution – from the beginning. Rowan Hooper in his latest book, Togetherness, shows how lichens, corals and even ourselves, flourish by means of other life forms. We have mitochondria, plants have chloroplasts, both formerly free-living creatures. We would not have evolved to our current form and could not survive without these once-invaders.
Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Is there anything more grotesque than wanting to bring back an extinct species into a world of suffering and loneliness? Well yes - wanting to genetically engineer dogs for the military

Amy Feldman@amyfeldman7.bsky.social

*NEW* Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey team up on a new startup to genetically engineer war dogs for the military. Warhound comes out of stealth at $1.2B valuation For @forbes.com with @iainmartin.bsky.social and @mhunterhart.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

forbes.comBillionaires Palmer Luckey And Ben Lamm Spin Up Startup To Genetically Engineer Military DogsBen Lamm of de-extinction startup Colossal has teamed up with Palmer Luckey’s team at Anduril to create a dog that’s optimized for military use. The new “warhounds” will be cloned and gene edited.

Rowan Hooper reposted

Musa Okwonga
@okwonga.bsky.social

The organising by Lula's voters in Brazil right now is astonishing. They still might not win but they've put millions on the street and they have shifted the polls back to a tie -despite, in a friend's words, fighting "everyone -Trump, Meta, legacy media, the rich, betting companies, evangelicals".

Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

As the UK government approves the Jackdaw gasfield, this UN report shows current policies take us to 2.8°C by 2100.

Joeri Rogelj@joerirogelj.bsky.social

A smaller gap but a worse future. Current policies, result in warming being kept below 2.8°C by 2100. The most optimistic case, where all NDCs and net-zero targets are achieved keeps warming to 2.1°C. This is a worsening from last year's report, mainly because of the policy roll-backs in the US.

Rowan Hooper reposted

Michelle Home Scholar
@michellehmschlr.bsky.social

Book Review: Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest Collaborations I recently finished Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest Collaborations by Rowan Hooper, and found the book fascinating and a wonderful deep dive into the importance of symbiosis…

michellehomescholar.comBook Review: Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest CollaborationsI recently finished Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest Collaborations by Rowan Hooper, and found the book fascinating and a wonderful deep dive into the importance of symbiosis in the natural world, not just for individual species that are involved in partnerships, but for life itself on this planet. Hooper’s central aim in Togetherness seems to be to challenge the view that competition is the primary driver of evolution—a perspective often associated with capitalism and the phrase “survival of the fittest.” Hooper suggests that Darwin emphasized this idea partly to make his book more marketable.

Rowan Hooper reposted

Jonathan Watts
@jonathan-watts.bsky.social

Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls to lowest level on record as pivotal vote looms for President Lula New data shows forest clearance fell by 71.2% since 2022, the final year of Bolsonaro administration. Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.comBrazilian Amazon deforestation falls to lowest on record as pivotal vote loomsForest clearance at smallest total since records began in 1988 in success for Lula ahead of presidential run-off
Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Absolutely desperate. As @guyshrubsole.bsky.social was saying at the weekend: 50 MILLION pheasants are released into the wild annually. The biomass outweighs that of all native bird species combined.

Natalie Bennett@nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social

More confirmation of the parlous state of #biodiversity on these islands. Environment Act ia not delivering. We need #NaturesRights now www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com‘Shocking and sobering’: UK bird populations fall to lowest level on recordNearly half of species are in decline, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit, conservation bodies say

Rowan Hooper reposted

Caroline Lucas
@carolinelucas.bsky.social

This would be economically illiterate & environmentally disastrous - and makes us less secure: undermining efforts to reduce energy bills by reducing dependence on gas, increasing vulnerability to global dictators, driving climate emissions & knee capping a market that’s just beginning to take off

theguardian.comMinisters preparing to slash heat pump subsidies to fund defence spendingExclusive: Some of £2bn savings needed from energy budget expected to come from boiler upgrade scheme, sources say

Rowan Hooper reposted

Guy Shrubsole
@guyshrubsole.bsky.social

Brilliant to be on a panel with @rowhoop.bsky.social & Lucy Jones at New Scientist Live today - chatting about symbiosis, lichens, how being in nature is good for our health, how landowners release 50m pheasants into the countryside annually… and how to campaign against nature loss!

Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Instantly makes me think of Self Esteem's "I cannot stress this enough / You'll never know how to love"

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com

It's telling that men would rather try to invent tech to replace humans' role in caregiving than step up as equal partners in parenting. Telling, that is, in that it shows how financial capitalism and patriarchy work together to dissuade men from doing "unprofitable" labor, like the work of care.

Rowan Hooper reposted

Keith Alexander
@keithalexander.bsky.social

It’s monstrous that people would consider trying to kill 1000 beings that are hundreds of years old and take 150 years to even reach sexual maturity, purely because they interfere with fishing for halibut. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.comTo cull or not to cull: Greenland debates fate of world’s slowest sharkAs trawlers compete with Greenland sharks for halibut and cod, conservationists and fishers clash over what to do about misunderstood species

Rowan Hooper reposted

Florent Waltz
@florentwaltz.bsky.social

Huge congratulations to all three Nobel Laureates, and especially Peter Hegemann! 👏 His seminal work on the green alga Chlamydomonas 🦠 laid the foundation for optogenetics. Thank you for putting Chlamy in the spotlight! ✨ Proof that groundbreaking discoveries don't always come from animal models! 🔬

Nobel Prize@nobelprize.org

BREAKING NEWS The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

Rowan Hooper reposted

Richard Littler
@richardlittler.bsky.social

The BBC's new director general's brain is smaller on the inside.

IGN@ign.com

The BBC's new director general has described a 50-minute AI-generated episode of Doctor Who as "pretty good," and suggested that the technology now enabled the creation of content "at the standard of a Hollywood studio." https://bit.ly/4rD8rmh

Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

Look at that temperature line. Our piece on the El Niño catastrophe www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxNH...

youtube.comThis El Niño Is About To Cause a Global CatastropheYouTube video by The World, The Universe And Us
ECIU@eciu.net

🤯 Temp rise at heart of El Niño in Pacific Ocean has now reached 3.05°C 📍 higher than 3.02°C set in late Nov 2015 (which was higher than in the 150 years of modern records) 📍 most recent forecasts predict a peak of 4.0°C in Novand Dec

Rowan Hooper
@rowhoop.bsky.social

“Dr. Mestre said that he analyzed the same data a year ago, which helped them identify the RNA genes associated with the jumbotrons. They shared this unpublished information with Claude” 👀

Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com

Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc

nyti.msDid Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.

Rowan Hooper reposted

Nick Sousanis
@nsousanis.bsky.social

I love it when my reading interests collide, as Alan Moore & Swamp Thing turn up rather unexpectedly in the final chapter of @rowhoop.bsky.social’s important look at the symbiotic interconnected nature of life in Togetherness!

Rowan Hooper reposted

Karen Tanenbaum
@drtanenbaumii.bsky.social

Just finished the audiobook of Togetherness by @rowhoop.bsky.social and I can tell it's going to be one of those books that sticks with me. If you have care about ecology, evolution, climate change, fungi, lichen, plants, the gut biome, mutual aid, or just what it means to be a human, read it!