Science & Technology
Space milestones, the rise of mobile and AI, and the nuclear and scientific reckonings that defined technology in 2011.
Every Science & Technology article in the 2011 knowledge base. Use the topic filters to narrow by sub-topic.
Wikipedia SOPA Blackout
On **January 18, 2012**, Wikipedia's English-language site went completely dark for 24 hours to p...
Scientific Discoveries & Breakthroughs of 2011
2011 witnessed pivotal scientific breakthroughs spanning cosmology (accelerating universe expansi...
2011 Renewable Energy Expansion — Solar, Wind, and Hydro ...
Global surge in renewable energy capacity in 2011, driven by cost reductions, policy incentives, ...
Android Mobile Platform Rise (2011)
In 2011, Google's Android platform achieved a watershed moment, surpassing Apple's iOS in global ...
Kepler-22b — First Confirmed Habitable-Zone Planet
On December 5, 2011, NASA announced that its Kepler space telescope had confirmed Kepler-22b, the...
NASA Curiosity Rover Launch
On November 26, 2011, at 10:02 AM EST, NASA launched the Curiosity rover aboard an Atlas V 541 ro...
Minecraft's Full Release (Version 1.0)
On November 18, 2011, Mojang released the full 1.0 version of Minecraft at the first MineCon conv...
Phobos-Grunt Mars Mission
Phobos-Grunt (Фобос-Грунт, meaning "Phobos-Soil"), Russia's ambitious interplanetary sample-retur...
iPhone 4S & Siri Introduction
Apple announced the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011, at its Cupertino campus in the first keynote pr...
2011 Nobel Prizes
The 2011 Nobel Prizes, announced in the first two weeks of October, recognized transformative wor...
Instagram Founding & iOS Launch
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram on October 6, 2010, attracting 25,000 users on ...
Launch of Tiangong-1
China launched Tiangong-1, its first space laboratory module, on September 29, 2011, setting the ...
Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Anomaly (OPERA)
In September 2011, the OPERA collaboration announced that it had measured beams of neutrinos appa...
Snapchat Founded (September 2011)
In September 2011, Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown laun...
Launch of NASA's Juno Spacecraft
NASA's Juno spacecraft, the second mission in the agency's New Frontiers program, launched toward...
Space Shuttle Program Ends (July 21, 2011)
On July 21, 2011, at 5:57 AM EDT, Space Shuttle *Atlantis* touched down on Runway 15 at Kennedy S...
Google+ Launch
Google officially launched **Google+** on **June 28, 2011**, as its most ambitious attempt to bui...
Bitcoin's 2011 Price Spike and Mainstream Adoption Surge
In 2011, Bitcoin experienced a dramatic price surge, reaching $30 per coin in June before collaps...
Cloud Computing and Infrastructure in 2011
Explosive growth of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure transformed computing from on-premise...
MESSENGER Enters Orbit Around Mercury
On March 18, 2011 (01:00 UTC; the evening of March 17 in the United States), NASA's MESSENGER spa...
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 PM Japan Standard Time, a magnitude 9.0–9.1 submarine megathrust earth...
IBM Watson Wins Jeopardy! (2011)
In February 2011, IBM's Watson question-answering system defeated two of the greatest Jeopardy! c...