Editing 1996 in science (section)

==Publications==
* May – [[Sokal affair]]: American mathematical physicist [[Alan Sokal]] hoaxes the editors into publishing a deliberately nonsensical paper, "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity", in a "[[science wars]]" issue of the journal ''[[Social Text]]'' ([[Duke University Press]])<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/466856 |jstor=466856 |title=Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity |journal=Social Text |issue=46/47 |pages=217–252 |year=1996 |last1=Sokal |first1=Alan D. |s2cid=1546862 }}</ref> as a critique of the intellectual rigor of [[postmodernism]] in academic [[cultural studies]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html|title=A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies|accessdate=2015-03-09|last=Sokal|first=Alan D.|journal=[[Lingua Franca (magazine)|Lingua Franca]]|date=May 1996}}</ref>
* Belgian physical chemist [[Ilya Prigogine]] publishes ''[[:fr:La Fin des certitudes|La Fin des certitudes]]'' (translated as ''The End of Certainty: time, chaos, and the new laws of nature'').<ref>{{cite book|last1=Prigogine|first1=Ilya|title=La Fin des certitudes |publisher=Éditions Odile Jacob |language=French|date=1 January 1996}}</ref>
* French-born archaeologist [[Denise Schmandt-Besserat]] publishes ''How Writing Came About''.<ref>{{cite book|title=How Writing Came About |language=en|isbn=9780292774865|date=1996-06-05|last1=Schmandt-Besserat|first1=Denise|publisher=University of Texas Press}}</ref>