The year 1911 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Exploration

• December 14 - Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen and a team of four, become the first people to reach the South Pole.

Physics

• Ernest Rutherford explains the Geiger-Marsden experiment and derives the Rutherford cross section by deducing the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments.
• Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.
• Charles Wilson finishes a sophisticated cloud chamber

Technology

• January 18 - Eugene Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
• Georges Claude develops the neon lamp.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Wilhelm Wien
  • Chemistry - Marie Sklodowska-Curie
  • Medicine - Allvar Gullstrand

Births

Deaths

• January 17 - Sir Francis Galton (b. 1822), explorer and biologist.
• December 10 - Joseph Dalton Hooker (b. 1817), botanist.