I am a colony. I have more bacteria in my body than my own cells. I have your ideas in my head. I am biology, but also a life of shared experience. I am part of a network, a community, a genetic pool, a speck in the life of the cosmos. I can imagine the cosmos, empathise with you, be a friend. My thoughts are out there, your fears and your pleasures affect me. The death of a forest affects my life, as do the vagaries of the jet stream. I cannot survive alone. I live on planet earth.