Dr. Jake Robinson at Flinders University in Adelaide has a radical reframing to offer: your body is not a fortress to be defended against the microbial world, but rather an ecosystem you're already part of. This simple shift in perspective—understanding humans as "holobionts," living assemblages of trillions of bacteria, viruses, and other microbes—appears to rewire how people think about nature and their place within it.
In an increasingly urban world where people can feel isolated from the natural environment, Robinson and his colleagues recognized that reconnecting people to nature might not always require hiking or gardening. Instead, it could begin with understanding the invisible life already dwelling within us and around us. This insight sparked a novel intervention: what if teaching people about their own microbial nature could fundamentally shift their sense of connection to the living world?
To test this idea, Robinson and co-lead author Dr. Alexia Barrable from Queen Margaret University in Scotland designed a randomized, blinded study with 190 participants. The intervention was deceptively simple—participants watched a video and received supporting information about the holobiont concept, the idea that we are not standalone organisms but walking ecosystems intimately connected to the natural world. Researchers then measured nature connectedness using the Nature Relatedness-6 scale, a validated tool that captures how closely people feel tied to the environment.
The results proved striking. People who learned about their microbial nature reported significantly higher scores on nature connectedness measures. Remarkably, this increase in connection matched what researchers typically see from nature-based interventions—activities that require people to spend time outdoors and engage directly with forests, gardens, and water. A single educational experience, delivered through video and text, proved just as effective as getting your hands dirty in soil.
"Even a short holobiont experience can significantly increase nature connectedness scores, which are associated with greater well-being and concern for the environment," Barrable explains. The implications extend beyond feel-good psychology. People with stronger nature connectedness tend to report better mental health and demonstrate greater willingness to protect the environment—two outcomes that matter deeply in a time of ecological concern.
Dr. Robinson, a Senior Research Fellow in Restoration Genomics, notes that this discovery has profound consequences for how we think about ourselves. "Learning about the microbial dimensions of human life appears to strengthen people's psychological relationships with the natural world," he says. The research suggests that microbiome literacy does more than build scientific understanding; it fundamentally reshapes how people perceive their place in the living world.
This may feel counterintuitive given modern hygiene norms and the cultural anxiety many feel toward microbes and dirt. Yet the evidence points toward a liberating truth: we are not isolated bodies at war with bacteria, but cooperative communities within a larger living world. Understanding this connection—that the air we breathe, the soil we walk on, and the water we drink all contain the microbial companions that make human life possible—offers a surprisingly powerful way to feel less alone in nature. The findings appeared in the journal Ambio, marking what researchers describe as the world's first holobiont intervention study.