Aperture Science

Aperture Science, Inc. is a fictional research corporation featured in the Half-Life series. It is discussed in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and is the setting for the puzzle game Portal, which takes place in the Half-Life universe. Aperture Science was a direct competitor to Black Mesa, and cues in Portal suggest that it is also a massive research institution, infamous for the dangerous nature of its experiments and consequential inability to attract top science talent.

At the time of events depicted in Portal, the Aperture Science Enrichment Center facility seems to be long abandoned. Photos in the game, hints from GLaDOS that "the world has changed since [the player] last left the building", as well as events in the Episode 2, suggest that Portal is set at approximately the same time as the events in Half-Life 2, after the Combine invasion of Earth has already taken place.

Aperture Science may play an important role in Half-Life 2: Episode 3. The long-lost Aperture Science ship Borealis is briefly mentioned in Episode 2 (during Dr. Mossman's transmission from an arctic base). The Borealis being an oceangoing science vessel that vanished without a trace along with a large section of drydock while it was moored. No trace was found until Judith Mossman's team discovered it encased in arctic ice in Episode 1. Eli Vance indicates that the technology on the Borealis must be destroyed, so the Borealis may be a featured location in Episode 3.

Background information about Aperture Science is available by "logging in" at aperturescience.com (the login username and password are scrawled on a wall in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center in Portal), although how much of information presented is real and how much is humorous is uncertain. The information includes the name of Aperture Science's first CEO, Cave Johnson (a reference to Valve employee Dave Johnson), and his "3 Tier" plan to make the organization successful.

According to the information provided by logging into the Aperture Science page, the company first started out in 1953 making shower curtains. After some Mercury poisoning, Johnson became mentally unstable and developed a "3 Tier" plan to make the company successful. This led to problems, and eventually to a Senate Investigative Committee where, having heard about the advances into portal technology, shut down the committee, and gave Aperture Science "...an open-ended contract to secretly continue research on the 'Portal'...". It also states that GLaDOS was first activated shortly after 1996, at the first Aperture Science "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day", which may hint that Chell is a daughter of an Aperture Employee, as the "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day" is also mentioned briefly in Portal.

External links

• http://www.aperturescience.com - Website created by Valve Corporation