Emergence-y

Reconnecting science, art and heart, our chance to escape disaster

Author: Clare Harris

Editor: Mark Buchanan

Publisher: London Mathematical Laboratory Press

UPCOMING RELEASE

Available from Amazon and other literary outlets, including directly from LML Press this coming Winter

Book Summary

Emergence-y is a powerful call to reimagine how we confront crisis by reconnecting science, art, and heart. Clare Harris, a global leader at the intersection of science, data, and disaster management, began her career at age 20 in the Darfur conflict. Since working in the cracks between science and crisis operations, where few dare to tread. Blending personal memoir with irreverent humour and the science of planetary hazards, she explores how embracing uncertainty, deep communication, and human heart is vital for sciences utility in a world increasingly shaped by climate change, disaster, and inequality.

At its core, Emergence-y explores resilience, not just systemic resilience to disaster, but human resilience shaped by relationships and lived experience. The author draws strength from a lineage of resilient women: formidable grandmothers, dissenting aunties who challenged colonial norms with a sharp wit, a physics teacher who refused retreat, and even a Star Trek captain who embodied courageous, unconventional leadership. These stories—real and fictional, women of science, art, and heart—are woven into a broader narrative about system influence, bias, uncertainty, and how entrenched value structures shape our view of the world. Understanding this is critical in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.

From failures in science communication to elitism and hidden inequities in global systems, Emergence-y explores how current structures fail those at risk, and how they might transform, not through fanfare, but by asking “why” and holding the discomfort of the answers, as any good scientist should. Through first-hand accounts of crisis, leading diverse teams, and embracing failure, the book shows how societies can “dance with uncertainty.” It offers sharp critiques—personal and systemic, but, crucially, unrelenting hope. Ultimately, Emergence-y champions storytelling, diverse knowledge, bold collaboration, and radical rethinking of how we prepare for the unknown. As Clare puts it, “I reckon it’s better to go out learning and laughing with a drink in hand and a fighting rebel heart, reaching for more positive future storylines in the world, even if it can never be guaranteed. That uncertainty is the very fabric of our reality.”