Black Mesa Research Facility
 Logo used from 1991 to 2000, up until its dissolution. | |
 The above-ground section of the facility, with most of it's square footage being underground. | |
| Privately-held company | |
| Industry | Advanced Physics |
| Fate | Defunct; Resonance Cascade |
| Founded | January 11, 1945 |
| Founder | |
| Defunct | December 12, 2000 |
| Headquarters | Black Mesa, New Mexico, United States of America |
Key people | |
 US$383.3 billion (2000) | |
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US$235.3 billion (2000) | |
| Total assets |
US$3.5 trillion (2000) |
Number of employees |
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| Divisions |
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| Subsidiaries | |
Black Mesa Research Facility (or officially; the Black Mesa Advanced Research Facility, and formerly; Black Mesa Research Foundation (1945–1956)) was an American information, data, advanced physics and federally funded research and development facility in Black Mesa, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1945, the laboratory was owned by private holder, Wallace Breen, who was also the co-founder of Black Mesa with Jonathan Whitehead in 1945, and formerly sponsored the University of New Mexico's Physics Institute. While the facility ostensibly conducts military-industrial research, its secret experiments into teleportation have caused it to make contact with the alien world of Xen, and its scientists covertly studied its life-forms and materials. In a catastrophic event known as the Black Mesa Incident, the Anti-Mass Spectrometer experiment 12-06-2001-3883 conducted on Xen Crystal Sample GG-3883, caused a resonance cascade that caused the destruction of the facility by a nuclear weapon on 7 December 2000.
Black Mesa was founded on January 11, 1945 between co-founders Wallace Breen and Jonathan Whitehead, who both attended the Physics Institute of the University of New Mexico. They both had established important relationships between governmental figures and figures involved with the Manhattan Project and subsequent nuclear weapon related-projects, having the added effect, it gave the foundation at the time a good relationship with the U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman, with the latter giving a green light to Black Mesa when they attempted to purchase a former nuclear silo that the government had used to store future nuclear weapons to test. The government also assisted in the decommissioning of several sectors of the site and eventual removal of nuclear weapons from the site, and the former name of Black Mesa–the Black Mesa Research Foundation–was changed to the current Black Mesa Research Facility, or colloquially (from 1993–2000 due to some advertisements.) known as the Black Mesa Advanced Research Facility. Black Mesa had constant and hard competition from Aperture Science as they both were each other's described enemies. Breen insulted Johnson, and Cave Johnson insulted Wallace Breen, and this had stayed the same because of how long the conflict was between them, ever since Black Mesa was founded in 1945. In 1957, the other founder of Black Mesa, Jonathan Whitehead disappeared after an experiment went wrong in the Teleportation room that turned into the later Sector I Visitor Center after this incident, which later caused the Whitehead Teleportation Center to be created to memorialize his name in the 1960s and 1970s. He then returned for a period of time during the Black Mesa Incident until finally dying from the nuclear bombing of the Black Mesa Research Facility. Black Mesa was given the rights to handle nuclear material again, which supported the power plant that would later be called The Lambda Reactor. The first plans for an Anti-Mass Spectrometer were formulated during this time aswell.
Black Mesa also held heavy studies on Landmass-to-Landmass teleportation, using the Border World they found during their earlier teleportation experiments. Some experiments worked, like the Nixon Experiment which involved him being teleported to White Forest Research Base in Communist Poland in the mid-1970s. This led to the United States officially allowing them to continue teleportation experiments under the support of the Department of Energy, Department of Technology, and Department of Defense after previously having it cancelled because it wasn't "promising enough" to the Eisenhower cabinet back in the 50s. Black Mesa was also shown to have evidence of human-level intelligent life outside of our own, what we know as the Combine, was the HLILX (Human like Intelligent Life-Xen) in the late 1970s. Due to some power or decision, Breen shut down the research done on the Combine which would've led us to be some-what prepared if he had not shut down the project. In the 1980s, the Black Mesa Research Facility opened the Sector C Test Labs, which held the new and actively tested Anti-Mass Spectrometer that was turned on officially for the first time on November 5, 1984. During an experiment in 1986, Ronald Reagan lost his finger by atomization from an energy beam released by the Anti-Mass Spectrometer by accident during a mishap with an energy field being unbalanced. In the same time as the construction of the Sector C Test Labs, the Sector E Biodome Complex was being formulated and then finally broke ground on March 4, 1984. In a test experiment including 3 different laboratories in the facility, the facilities power short circuited and caused a massive power outage for a period of a couple hours on November 14, 1986. The corporation purchased the Port Richmond Water Pollution Control Plant to hide some of the nuclear and alien waste that they were producing.
The 1990s modernized the communication systems of the facility, including the creation of the Black Mesa Email Service. But it also showed the horrible conditions that some workers had at the facility, showing that Wallace Breen verbally abused some of his workers during a lawsuit done by one of the victims of his verbal abuse in 1995. The Sector E Biodome Complex was also announced to be opened on 11 September 2001 during this time. The Department of Defense was in talks with the Black Mesa Administrative Staff to see if they could get the newly discovered Hivehand weapons into military use, but it was denied by the United Nations stepping in and denying the use of it because of issues of civilian safety and biological weaponry, Hivehands being living things used as weapons. The Black Mesa Research Facility was given a Nobel Prize in Physics for "their groundbreaking work in advancing the understanding of multi-dimensional physics, including the discovery of the interdimensional realm known as Xen during their pioneering research in the 1950s." They shared the award with Aperture before Aperture was found to have lied about their discoveries through corporate corruption and espionage. Gordon Freeman was hired in May 1999, having been one of the main figures of the Black Mesa Incident. In 2000, the Black Mesa Incident took place on December 6 of that year and is the infamous catastrophic event resulting from an experiment carried out at the Black Mesa Research Facility, which resulted in a Resonance Cascade, and ultimately the invasion of Earth by the Combine. Its aftermath sees the teleportation of multiple races of extra-terrestrials into Black Mesa; the resulting battle consisted of 5 different sides (The base's personnel, human military complex, government assassins, Xen creatures, and Race X forces concluded with the nuclear bombing of the Black Mesa facility and the deaths of all those involved in the battle that haven't been killed The consequences of the Black Mesa Incident are massive. The relatively small inter-dimensional rift causes Portal Storms to rage across Earth, bringing large amounts of Xen wildlife to the planet. Earth governments set up protection centers across the planet as they try to deal with the hostile aliens, which ended up with the invasion by the Combine and other inter-dimensional forces associated with the Combine.
History
1945–1953: Foundation, participation in the US Nuclear Weapons program, and search for research facility
Black Mesa traces its roots to the University of New Mexico's former Physics institute, which was renamed to University of New Mexico's Physics and Advanced Science institute after being sponsored by the Black Mesa facility. Despite the institute being formed before the birth of both Wallace Breen and Jonathan Whitehead it was trivial in the creation of the corporation. By their first classes in the University, they both knew that the route of advanced research was their calling. Determined to gain a foothold in the scientific field of America, Breen and Whitehead both met up in their private dormitories located inside the institute and planned to purchase a plot of land north of the institute until that same plot was bought by the popular Aperture Science, having upsized their operation into the Black Mesa plateau in 1944. Their original plans for the name of the research foundation was Plateau Mesa, and Black Plateau, until landing on the Black Mesa Research Foundation. Over the next three years, they had purchased access to land inside the institute where they could conduct tests and conduct research on those tests.
Aperture Laboratories' creation of the proto-turret, at the time called the Johnson Device, caused the Black Mesa founders to become more connected to the government by a mutual government employee they both had contact with, helping in the production of nuclear weapons with the U.S. Government at the time. Assisting in the production of the Gadget device, the duo helped develop the first nuclear weapon deployed in Human history. This caused them to have more connections due to the efforts in assisting Oppenheimer and his group with nuclear physics research, and eventually landed the duo with a government grant, and were licensed to work with nuclear material and nuclear weapons in general, before being deprived of the nuclear weapons handling license in 1949 as they both had decided to drop out of the program due to their reservations with the use of nuclear weapons against other Human beings. Adopting the same philosophy as J. Robert Oppenheimer at the time, who actually confided in the duo which ended up leading them to adopt the same philosophy in late 1947.
Oppenheimer was enlisted as a contract for the Black Mesa Research Foundation, helping the duo land an important government contract in 1949 that helped them acquire the rights to own the Johnson Device. At the time, Aperture Laboratories did not have a copyright on the name or the patent itself , and they would respond negatively by asking the government to rescind its copyright with Black Mesa, but they would refuse. Aperture Laboratories would begin to forget about the smaller research foundation, having founded a new product with their "high-technology" shower curtains anyway. At the time, their headquarters were located in the University of New Mexico, but this caused a couple issues with the University itself. One of the main issues was that the research foundation held nuclear material, and so the university gave them an ultimatum–If they had not removed the radioactive material from the University's location, then they would have to move their headquarters out of the University–to which the duo respectfully denied, and were kicked out of the University without hard feelings between the two entities.
After their removal from the University of New Mexico's Physics Institute in 1951, they went around the Black Mesa plateau and searched for property to hold their research foundation in. The inner council of the research foundation met in the former dorms of the two founders, and convened about the prospect of renaming the facility, and their former government contact alerted them to multiple abandoned nuclear silos in the Black Mesa area, specifically the Black Mesa Nuclear Holding Silo north of the University of New Mexico that was recently abandoned due to a plumbing problem that was left unchecked for years. J. Robert Oppenheimer and the unnamed government contract helped them convene with the U.S. Government and the former AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) that was started by Harry S. Truman, who also convened with the research foundation. Harry S. Truman at the time became friends with Breen, giving a green-light to the purchase, and the purchase went through on November 6, 1953.
1953–1961: Purchase of the Black Mesa Research Facility, renaming, first scientists, and experiments on teleportation technology
After the purchase of the former Black Mesa Nuclear Holding Silo, the Black Mesa Research Foundation quickly convened and moved to the former nuclear silo. After moving, they started scouting the inside of the facility for the former plumbing issues and immediately decommissioned the areas with the plumbing issues, being assisted by the U.S. Government in decommissioning several sectors of the site, and helped in the gradual movement of nuclear weapons out of the site and into government hands. Black Mesa's first official sector that was opened was Sector D, formerly Sector A at the time of purchase (Sector A Administration), which handled the construction of several sectors and complete redesign of several sectors of the former nuclear silo.
At the end of 1955, 50% of Sector A was completed and Black Mesa began reconvening on the idea of changing their name. Several contenders were brought up, like the Black Mesa Research Silo, Plateau Research Station, or the Black Mesa Research Center until landing on the Black Mesa Research Facility on January 20, 1956. In the later months in 1956, the Black Mesa Research Facility began to conduct experiments on the possibility of teleportation which was a topic that Aperture was currently experimenting with. Several physicists and scientific entities came over to the Black Mesa Research Facility after the sponsorship of an event at the University of Innsbruck which would establish a connection that would last until their dissolution, and on December 5, 1956, the first teleportation experiment would end in a success that was broadcasted to the U.S. Government and the president Dwight D. Eisenhower was impressed and participated in a press conference about the event after it took place, saying, "While I never imagined such advancements in my lifetime, the experiments in teleportation taking place at Black Mesa are truly remarkable. Their work exemplifies the extraordinary capabilities of American ingenuity and scientific progress."
In early 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower met with the founders of Black Mesa and promised a third government grant–having been 3 years after the prior government grant, and coincidentally both documents mention their impressive research–that would give the company 54 billion dollars, a bigger government grant that was taken from the hands of NASA and led to the negative perception of Black Mesa among NASA and Aperture Science personnel due to perceived stolen grants. In May 1957, Jonathan Whitehead was killed in a teleportation accident that remained unresolved, a massive portion of the room that it took place in disappeared alongside the founder. On December 6 2000, he returned during the Black Mesa Incident in the former Anti-Mass Spectrometer room after the main accident took place.
At the time, however, Whitehead was memorialized in Sector D Administration with a plaque that said–To the few that lost their lives to our research, Jonathan Whitehead, and the innocence of science.–His funeral was attended by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Harry S. Truman. The death of the co-founder Whitehead would not stop the advancements in teleportation however, even if the teleportation tests were postponed for a couple weeks, they resumed in late June 1957 as several newer teleportation tests took place with each one becoming larger and larger in scale until eventually being discontinued by the Black Mesa Research Facility after the government grants given because of the tests ran out, not being impressive enough by Black Mesa standards, and were being threatened to be described as a "one trick pony" if they kept up with the same experiment over and over again. It eventually led to the cessation of all teleportation projects with their place being replaced by the Aperture Science organization, having angered the Black Mesa Research Facility with Breen angrily responding with, "Johnson hasn't done anything close to us, why are they replacing us in that field? He's done nothing for science, we have!"
1961–1966: Interdimensional teleportation technology, and governmental involvement
In the background, teleportation experiments continued without the publicization of such experiments and in the foreground, several new sectors opened up alongside further government support by John F. Kennedy's Cabinet, having laid their eyes on the several potential sectors of Black Mesa and wished to help make them come to fruition. Kennedy was given a tour of the facility after Sector F, Sector G, and Sector B were opened; and was incredibly impressed by what he saw, leading to further government support that eventually evolved into government involvement as the Kennedy cabinet increased government grants for companies labelled as "Scientific in-nature" by the cabinet.
Black Mesa was viewed considerably better during this time because of the tour that they gave to Kennedy, and the consequences of the same event leading to the eventual increased support of other scientific laboratories or companies. Breen was given a Nobel Peace Prize alongside the facility for their actions in furthering the space of science and physics, and Aperture Science was caught by the government themselves for spying on the Black Mesa Research Facility, being charged with Company Espionage which would lead to a strained relationship between the two companies leading to the latter's fall off during the late 20th century. Aperture Science's grant was removed by the U.S. Government in response to this, and was given to Black Mesa instead which would strain it further.
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Black Mesa's employee base of 344 people was given a couple days off to mourn the death of the president that supported them so completely. The president that succeeded Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, had expressed his concerns with teleportation and the commercialization of science soon removed several grants from Black Mesa, but was quickly returned after mass media backlash that may have been perpetuated by the Black Mesa Research Facility, but remained unconfirmed if it was truly the fault of Black Mesa or governmental agencies that supported the research center. After the several grants were returned, Johnson remained unconnected with the Black Mesa Research Facility and denied questions about the research facility, apparently being unconcerned with the events that take place at the site, saying, "Let's be clear—I am not concerned with the operations or the work being carried out at Black Mesa."
By early 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson's opinion on Black Mesa and their experiments had changed as a result of an incredibly controlled tour he was given in the Black Mesa Complex. Having given the Black Mesa Research Facility several government grants once again after removing their grants for a period of three years, with most sectors by this point resuming their work on teleportation on the future Hazard EnVironment Suit. The Black Mesa Research Facility would win their first Nobel Peace Prize due to their work in teleportation and physics, awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Wallace Breen and what later became Sector F Lambda Labs' scientist team, which was formed right after this. Sector K's Teleportation Labs would be renamed to Sector F Lambda Labs in late 1966, leading to a sponsored teleportation study done at University of Innsbruck's Physics Institute.
1966–1970: Competition with Aperture Science, Hazard EnVironment Suit, and nuclear energy research
By late 1966, Aperture Science and Black Mesa had grown increasing hostile towards each other, trying to "one-up" each other in the field of "Physics and Advanced Science" as described by Wallace Breen. Aperture Science, led by Cave Johnson, is involved in US Senate hearings regarding reports of missing astronauts, athletes, and government personnel due to their experiments, having caused the company to go bankrupt in the aftermath of the hearings, with Cave Johnson alleging that "Breen and his company [Black Mesa] have stolen and remade many of our patented products, like the combusting lemon, and the famous example of the Johnson Device." Wallace Breen, however, would deny such claims, harshly stating that "We, Black Mesa, would never steal any ideas from a failed science research company, If I may be honest, no one would. It's absurd Johnson would even allege such things."
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Aperture Science would once again be caught for corporate espionage in November 1968, as an Aperture Employee attempted to access the secretive Lambda Labs without clearance, leading to a lawsuit between the two companies. During this time, Black Mesa attempted several experiments with the topic of "handling atomic and dangerous materials" with several pieces of machinery being tested before the final product, the Hazardous EnVironment Suit or the HEV Suit for short would be accepted as the final product of the tests. The Hazardous EnVironment Suit allowed scientists to carry dangerous materials like Xen fauna to research, and was immediately used in the Lambda Labs as several tests revealed a second far larger universe that they called at the time, "The Border World" that assisted in the teleportation process. Aperture Science, however, would attempt to replicate the same experiments, leading to the deaths of further test subjects, with the tests for them ending with them being unable to use high-level subjects, and were downgraded to the homeless and people in poverty.
During the period between 1969 and 1970, Black Mesa had attempted to create a nuclear power plant on the land that they had purchased in the Black Mesa Plateau. These experiments included several experimental reactor designs that included teleportation and Xen, which gave the scientists of Sector F Lambda Labs an idea, which led to the creation of the Lambda Reactor and Lambda Reactor Portal which held the modern portal that assisted in the research and teleportation between Earth and Xen. Black Mesa was given license to handle nuclear material once again after having it removed for a period of twenty-three years, havign had it removed in 1947 after a change in philosophy about nuclear weapons and their usage in war. The Lambda Reactor was the largest research reactor ever created, powering the Black Mesa Facility with 42,363.1 Twh (Terawatt hours) at the time of 1970, which dwarfed the global cumulative electricity generation by about 32818.1 Terawatt hours of power which still wasn't enough to power most of their teleportation experiments, which shocked many that worked on the reactor.
1970–1979: First plans of an Anti-Mass Spectrometer, Research on Landmass–Landmass teleportation, and the first discoveries of evidence of the existence of a sentient species other than their own
In late 1970, the minds behind the Lambda Reactor and Pre-Anti-Mass Spectrometer teleportation experiments decided to plan the creator of a mass spectrometer that was able to analyze the material that they had received from the dimension that they called "The Border World" at the time. In the beginning planning stages of the construction of the mass-machinery, it had several working names before they had landed on the simple name of Anti-Mass Spectrometer, like The Anti-Matter Analyzer, The Anti-Matter Spectrometer, and then finally, the Anti-Mass Spectrometer in early 1971, and in May 1971, Wallace Breen had then greenlighted the conceptual blueprint stage of the massive machine. The group of five scientists that had begun the blueprints of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer had hit a bump on their research, being unable to accurately come up with a plan of analyzing the crystal with the machine as the material making up the crystals had been unknown at the time, so they couldn't come up with a way of researching it with the issue ending up with the group abandoning it and leaving it in the Black Mesa Archives until being revisited later in 1980.
After the abandonment of the Anti-Mass Spectrometers plans, research on Landmass to Landmass teleportation had begun as the research facility had purchased land in Eastern Europe, calling the former missile silo the White Forest Research Facility, to go along with their own research facilities in Black Mesa, and begun the experimentation of Landmass to Landmass teleportation from North America to Europe. However, first experiments ended semi-impressively as the teleportation between the two landmasses ended in a success but a very prolonged success as the first subjects being successfully received 2 weeks after the experiment in Black Mesa took place. This was promising enough for the US Government to become interested in teleportation in Black Mesa again with President Richard Nixon was given a chance to be a subject in their third experiment, causing Richard Nixon to be transported into Communist Poland 2 weeks later, and then transported back two weeks afterwards, with his disappearance for four weeks being unregistered by the US media or any government agencies (as a result of Richard Nixon's permission).
In 1975, Richard Nixon's sponsorship of the Black Mesa Research Facility would once again end up with hostilities between Black Mesa and Aperture Science as Cave Johnson saw their sponsorship as a crime against science because of Black Mesa's theft of their patents. Shocking the science field, Aperture Science had actually figured out time travel to trump the efforts of Black Mesa in teleportation, and showed it off in a press conference which would catch the eye of Nixon before the science experiment was sabotaged by a Black Mesa employee, leaving Nixon with injuries as he was invited up on stage as a test subject, causing Aperture Science to become incredibly unpopular with the public as they had injured a popular president at the time. Johnson had afterwards blamed the incident on Black Mesa and their director, Wallace Breen, saying "The incident was no fault of Aperture Science as we had the science ready and on stage, and once the president comes up–it messes up suddenly? I call bullshit! It's Black Mesa and their cronies!" Wallace Breen however, would deny such claims saying "I'm incredibly angry that you think I would perpetuate injuries against the president, my friend, Nixon. I would never injure the president, and this just seems like an excuse to escape blame."
The period between 1976–1979 would see the discovery of a large dimension-spanning empire that is currently known as the Combine, but at the time, the researchers had no knowledge of how big they were at the time as the only evidence they had existed was a logo and what looked like a tape recorder stored under a couple boulders inside of Xen. The tape recorder was studied by the scientists of Black Mesa at the time because it had looked like nothing they had ever seen, an inhuman piece of technology that they had no knowledge on how to operate. But, during testing in 1978, the scientists had activated a button on the tape recorder that would play audio of an unknown entity speaking an unknown language (that would later be known as the Advisor's language) to the scientists. Wallace Breen was incredibly confused when these findings were brought to him, but later in 1979, his opinion had changed as he forced the team to disassemble the device and reassemble it once they had understood how to use such technology. Breen would later end the research project, citing powers above him wanted the project to cease. It is widely believed that Breen had knowledge of the interdimensional empire, and wanted the project to end on his own.
1980–1990: Opening of Sector C Test Labs, development of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, work on the Sector E Biodome Complex, and the acquirement of the Port Richmond Water Pollution Control Plant
During the early 1980s, Breen announced the opening of the Sector C Test Labs alongside a future Sector E Biodome Complex. As a result of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer experiments, one of the designs for the spectrometer was accepted by Breen and the higher Technological Administrators at the site. The site was opened on November 4, 1982 after an inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) accepted the safety of the sector and allowed it to start operations on November 5, 1982 the following day. Its first experiment took place the month after the opening of the sector, October 6, 1982. During one of the first tests, Ronald Reagan was invited by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Black Mesa Research Facility to view one of the ongoing tests, to which ended in Reagan losing one of his fingers due to one of the high-particle energy beams released by the experiment, causing an immediate shut down of the sector for a month as they searched for his lost finger. The finger turned out to be atomized during the test, and the facility was fined by OSHA for 1.4 million dollars which was paid off in January 1983.
Sector E Biodome Complex began implementing blueprints for the site during some point in 1984, having been sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as it was to hold fauna and wildlife found from the dimension of Xen that was discovered ten years before. Bill Ruckelshaus, the fifth Administrator of the EPA spoke at the construction site when ground was first broken in the Black Mesa Psaume instantané Cave Complex on March 4, 1984, stating "I am proud to be here today, as I see a very ecologically friendly future for the Black Mesa Facility." he was joined by Breen who also stated, "We have plans to cut emissions in half in 4 years." which never went into place and was only really to catch the eye of the EPA and other ecological agencies in the United States. In another attempt to sabotage the Black Mesa Research Facility, Aperture Science allegedly sent a scientist to ruin the construction project for Black Mesa by putting a sign stating gas was found in the cave system, but was shocked to learn that constructions continued regardless of the presence of gas. This was leaked to the press and Breen released a statement saying, "We caught the same scientist prior trying to sabotage our systems, how many times can you really fool a government agency?"
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The Sector C Test Labs had a minor accident on the morning of November 14, 1986 as power stations were overloaded from three experiments in different laboratories in the facility being conducted at the same time. It caused a major power outage outside of the facility for areas around Dixon, New Mexico. The accident that caused the Black Mesa Incident was exactly the same as this one but exponentially worse for the surroundings. The accident being covered up by the research facility as a "system error" and the power outage being blamed as an "underground nuclear explosion accidentally affecting a power station north of the facility" and it was ignored by most news stations as it was covered up by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Reagan Cabinet also had a hand in covering it up after Reagan visited the same area which had a memorial for his atomized finger. Aperture Science once again attempted to create a campaign against the Black Mesa Research Facility until their founder Cave Johnson contracted Silicosis from extracted moon rocks in 1987 and passed away in 1989.
In 1989 through 1990, Black Mesa went through the process of purchasing the Port Richmond Water Pollution Control Plant to support the waste disposal process of Black Mesa to better hide the pollution caused by the center as it exported it far from the site to hide the barrels of nuclear waste and waste from failed Xen experiments. a study done by the EPA in late 2000 stated that 3.4% of all water pollution from New York harbor and specifically near the Staten Island coast was of Nuclear or Multi-dimensional origin, which was speculated to be from either Aperture or Black Mesa. The first not being heard from in a while before the Black Mesa incident so it was widely believed to be pollution from them, with Breen and his associated perpetuating that information by paying major news papers to perpetuate the story that Aperture was polluting the New York Harbor as they couldn't respond due to a site shutdown from the apparent sentient Artificial Intelligence named GLADos.
1990–1999: Wallace Breen publications, Sector H Information Technology, full recon teams to Xen, accepted studies of Xen species, and Nobel Prize in Physics
Wallace Breen appeared on 1991's Tech Impact publication for his involvement in the study of Multi-dimensional travel and studies due to the Sector C Labs in the Black Mesa Research Facility, which was controversial in the facility because it showed the staff that Breen was allegedly "egotistical" and "prone to labelling other people's work as his own." which was admitted during a US Congressional hearing post-incident. Breen also watched the rise of the internet in the United States and decided to create a primitive IRC chat for the personnel to contact each other and speak about certain events occurring in or outside of the facility, deeming it the "Black Mesa Official E-Mail service." By 1992, it had a userbase of most of the facility at around 1,892 users. Internet presence was behind in Black Mesa but they intended to catch up with their competitions in the following years as they began blueprints for a new sector labelled Sector H Information Technology, which was planned to employ a further 200 employees to the Black Mesa Research Facility. They first broke ground on the Sector H site on September 11, 1993 which was supported by the Department of Technology as they gave the Black Mesa site explicit permission to use governmental facilities for the creation of the new sector. Sector H Information Technology opened on 9 May 1995 with an initial staff count of 143, the head of the facility was recent hire Alonzo Evans who famously had involvement in the creation of the internet and the spread of the internet as he helped pioneer dial-up internet. The IT field of the site was known for their future-like technology as they had expressed the fact that they were intentionally "hiring all of the famous internet-related people to stop Aperture from catching up" which eventually lead them to get into trouble with the United States Government as they caught wind of this decision and conversation before shutting down this plan and forcing the Black Mesa Research Facility to employee lower experienced IT professionals that could help them in the same way. Breen notably had a breakdown in front of the administration as he felt that the United States Government was intentionally sabotaging his work to "keep up bullshit laws" that he felt were wrong. He notably verbally abused an IT employee staff which then vandalized the Black Mesa Official E-Mail services to make his email signatures end with "Doctor Wallace Fuckhead Breen" that lead to the firing of that employee who then sued the company and was awarded 2.3 million dollars, being told to keep it quiet.
Xen was planned to be explored back in May 1984 when the Anti-Mass Spectrometer was opened, but plans changed as the team who was originally supposed to enter into Xen died in an accident relating to nuclear waste in January 1984 which caused Breen to push back the experiment by 11 years as he allowed for more experiments on the Anti-Mass Spectrometer and other facilities before letting the exploration of Xen take place, including the continued construction of the Sector E Biodome Complex which by 2000 still wasn't completed as the plans admittedly would take decades to complete due to some time constraints and labor laws being implemented by OSHA and the Department of Labor. It's estimated opening time was 11 September 2001 for the beginning of experimentation that was scheduled to take place. In 1995, explorations into the dimension of Xen began as a team of 5 Black Mesa scientists entered into the dimension to collect samples of Xen crystals and wildlife like Craniumambulus Parasiticus (Headcrab) and the Canisoculus Sonicus (Houndeye) for studying. Once 4 of the five team members returned, one having died from an attack by a Headcrab, having acted like a stereotypical zombie as described by the research team.
In late 1995, another exploration of Xen took place by a group of 10 Black Mesa scientists, and the team discovered several other species before going missing days after their arrival because of an assumed attack by a Xenotheris Sapiens (Vortigaunt). The reconnaissance of the dimension of Xen was shortly cancelled for a year until returning to practice in late 1996 as a team of scientists and security staff were sent to Xen, which were much more successful than their predecessors because of the attacks from Xenian fauna being put down by the Black Mesa Security staff. Teams after this one were given designations of Theta-01, Theta-02, Beta-04, Alpha-01 to categorize their importance for the study of the species that make up the fauna and wildlife of Xen. Xen is described as a dimension with the same level of availability of life as Earth, having some of the same conditions which made it conducive for the production of life which was confirmed by the study of Xen species, who were confirmed to be of Carbon origin. This discovery by the Research team led to some completed parts of the Sector E Biodome Complex becoming an important research center for Xen wildlife and how they operate alongside the Advanced Biological Research Lab.
In 1998, the scientists in the Advanced Biological Research Lab found out a massive discovery which involved questionable ethics as admitted by Isaac Kleiner during the 2000 US Congressional hearing on Black Mesa, with Black Mesa having figured out that they could use some of the fauna of Xen as military weapons like the so-called 'Hivehand' which shot homing hornets at a target. The Department of Defense was seriously considering the use of Hivehands in military use before being shut down by the UN Peace Conference of 1999 that disabled the use of Hivehands and alien weaponry in Earth combat, having been labelled as a war crime and the Lab was forced to go underground to hide their questionable experiments under the label of the hydro-electric dam that was centered in the site. On 27 November 1999, the Black Mesa Research Facility received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "their groundbreaking work in advancing the understanding of multi-dimensional physics, including the discovery of the interdimensional realm known as Xen during their pioneering research in the 1950s. This achievement revolutionized the field, opening up new possibilities for exploring the nature of reality beyond the conventional dimensions of space and time." They shared the Nobel Prize with Aperture Science at the time before it was taken away from Aperture Science as they had apparently faked the joint discovery with the Black Mesa Research Facility. The award was given to them instead of Gerard 't Hooft and Martinus J. G. Veltman because the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences felt that the discovery of Xen and Multi-dimensional was more important than their inventions.
May 5, 1999–January 1, 2000: employment of Gordon Freeman, and the Year 2000 problem
On 9 May 1999, MIT and Innsbruck graduate Gordon Freeman would join the Black Mesa Research Facility as a member of the Science team due to his thesis paper entitled Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array which was essentially about the teleportation of matter through extremely dense elements which was highly favorable with the hiring staff of Black Mesa as other candidates like Judith Mossman and Russell Darby didn't quite have the same experience that Freeman did with teleportation and extremely dense materials. He was also searching for private sector jobs that had to deal with physics experiments and teleportation as the academic field was heavily underfunded which led to more accidents happening than actual discoveries in fields like teleportation or physics in general. Incidentally, Kleiner had taken charge of a research project being conducted at the Black Mesa Research Facility, located somewhere in the New Mexico desert and would considering Gordon for the job.
Gordon Freeman had to get acquainted with his fellow scientists as he was projected to work alongside the bigger and more educated heads of the Science team on the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, and Kleiner was looking for a few bright associates, with Gordon being his first choice, although Judith Mossman also applied for the position. Considering the source and amount of funds available to the Black Mesa labs, Gordon suspected that he would be involved in some sort of weapons research, but in the hopes that practical civilian applications would arise in areas of quantum computing and astrophysics, he accepted Kleiner's offer. For approximately a year and more than a half, he would be working alongside the same team on the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, doing tests on it. He was assigned to the Anomalous Materials department doing nuclear, subatomic, and quantum research, although the work that the Science team assigned him differed from the field he studied as it wasn't purely theoretical, but also practical as well. He was tasked to push the cart carrying the samples into the spectrometer to get data readings from it, and "flipping switches" as described during the 2000 US Congressional hearing on Black Mesa.
During the Year 2000 Problem, several systems that Black Mesa had were feared to fail during the New Years ceremony as many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. Computer systems' inability to distinguish dates correctly had the potential to bring down worldwide infrastructures for computer reliant industries, and most of Black Mesa's systems that could have a detrimental effect on a potential test that could've been taking place on December 31, 1999. Generally, Y2K the problem started because on both mainframe computers and later personal computers, memory was expensive, from as low as $10 per kilobyte, to more than US$100 per kilobyte in 1975. But, once the day came, none of the Black Mesa servers were heavily affected outside of the year changing on company computers to 1900. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer's experiment that was supposed to take place on December 31, 1999 was postponed to January 13, 2000.
Black Mesa Incident
Since the Black Mesa Incident is specifically better explained in its own article, here will be it's summary. The Black Mesa Incident took place on December 6, 2000 and is the infamous catastrophic event resulting from an experiment carried out at the Black Mesa Research Facility, which resulted in a Resonance Cascade, and ultimately the invasion of Earth by the Combine. Its aftermath sees the teleportation of multiple races of extra-terrestrials into Black Mesa; the resulting battle consisted of 5 different sides (The base's personnel, human military complex, government assassins, Xen creatures, and Race X forces concluded with the nuclear bombing of the Black Mesa facility and the deaths of all those involved in the battle that haven't been killed The consequences of the Black Mesa Incident are massive. The relatively small inter-dimensional rift causes Portal Storms to rage across Earth, bringing large amounts of Xen wildlife to the planet. Earth governments set up protection centers across the planet as they try to deal with the hostile aliens, which ended up with the invasion by the Combine and other inter-dimensional forces associated with the Combine.
Organization and Administration
Sectors
- Sector A Training Facility; held the training facilities for the employees that used the Hazardous EnVironment Suit, often called the Hazard Suit, for convenience, with the only confirmed users at the time of the Black Mesa Incident being Gordon Freeman and an unnamed security guard. It featured several levels of obstacle courses for the Hazard Suit to train with, to train the user for Xen research and handling of Xen crystals for the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. It was connected to the rest of the facility by the Sector A Tramline.
- Sector B Coolant Reserve; Sector B held the Coolant that was intended for the various test silos that the facility held, and was constantly monitored by several Black Mesa Personnel until the Black Mesa Incident took place, with the entire sector being destroyed by a massive explosion in one of the coolant tanks, with one tank remaining for the only test silo that reported activity during the Black Mesa Incident, which was activated by Gordon Freeman, it was at the time unknown as to why the silo was activated by Freeman, but it is still debated. It was connected through the rest of the facility by elevator from Sector C.
- Sector C Test Labs; Sector C Test Labs held the Anomalous Materials Laboratories, Gordon Freeman's workplace and the site of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, which spanned three floors, the deep underground level to the surface, and was the initial source of the Black Mesa Incident and the true starting point of the Xen Invasion that took place afterwards. It held much of the power sectors related to the Black Mesa facility due to the amount of energy needed to run at full capacity with the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, commonly using more power than the facility had, with many joking in the sector and outside of it that with one mistake, the experiment would explode and cause a Resonance Cascade (which was seen as an incredibly worrying threat by the Administration of Black Mesa) Sector C was seen as the most important part of the facility, with most of their staff being relegated to the sector. It was connected to the rest of the facility through the Sector C Tramline.
- Sector D Administration; Sector D holds many of the various administration offices inside of the Black Mesa complex, holding the administration offices of Information Technology, the Medical Team of Black Mesa, the Security administration of Black Mesa, and the offices of Wallace Breen. It also held the cafeteria for Black Mesa Personnel that they had their lunch breaks in, not being able to leave the facility until they had clocked out. It also holds the storage facility, which is a massive facility that contained various products from Xen or by-products of various experiments of Xenian origin. It also held the various cold-storage areas for the Black Mesa Cafeteria. It was connected to the rest of the facility through the Sector D Stairwells.
- Sector E Biodome Complex; At the time of the Black Mesa Incident, the Biodome Complex was recently refurbished from its previous form, still being under construction at the time. It was supervised from the Biodome Control Room, but had its access blocked by the collapsed ceiling in the entrance of it, and was one of the main sites of Xen and Race X fauna in the facility, having many Xenian environments having been transported through extradimensional portals into the sector, and held one of the main perpetrators of the Black Mesa Incident, the Gene Worm, having been destroyed by an unknown HECU Member, having been referred to as Shepard during the Trails that took place afterwards, and it also was the site of the Nuclear Explosion that took out the Black Mesa Research Facility. It was connected to the rest of the facility through the surface-level silo.
- Sector F Lambda Complex; Sector F was the site of Black Mesa's at the time top secret teleportation labs, made from a huge reactor consisting of the Lambda Reactor Coolant System, and the cylindrical Lambda Reactor Core, which was one of the main sites of the teleportation tests. The core of the reactor facility consisted of four levels A, B, C, and D that fueled an extremely powerful interdimensional portal located on Level A, where survey teams were equipped and sent over to Xen to collect samples. Sector F was the most important sector in ending the Black Mesa Incident but was also the causation of the Xen Invasion through Freeman's destruction of the Nihilanth, a reportedly extra-dimensional deity-like figure that had power over several dimensions. It was the highest paid sector until the Black Mesa Incident, and was connected to the rest of the facility using the Sector F Tramline.
- Sector G Hydro Electric; Sector G's most prominent feature was the Topside Hydro Plant, featuring the Black Mesa Hydro-Electric Dam. A Road passes above the dam, which led to the main Advanced Biological Research Lab, with the sector being named after the dam to hide the top secret experiments that involved questionable ethics, as reported by Isaac Kleiner, and was the most bombarded section of the facility by the HECU, having lost all of their control of the area to Gordon Freeman, and later pulled out due to this fact. It was connected to the rest of the facility by the Advanced Biological Research Lab, and the Sector G Tramline.
- Sector H Information Technology; Sector H held the Information Technology team, having been wiped out immediately after the Black Mesa Incident due to the explosion that wiped out half of the facility along with Sector B Coolant Reserve, having lost almost all Information Technology staff, with sixteen remaining after the incident. One of the IT staff spoke at the senate hearings post-event and said that they had no idea about the various experiments being held at the Black Mesa site, and were told to ignore the various emails about "Questionable Ethics" in Sector, being kept in the dark, with the five remaining staff being let go with no charges unlike the other sectors. It was connected to the rest of the facility by road, having been constructed top-side instead of underground, which was seen as a good move because it saved those sixteen lives.
- Sector I Visitors Center; Sector I held the visitor center, which was active at the date of the Black Mesa Incident, with the site's Family Exhibit Day taking place in conjunction with the nearby University of New Mexico, and was immediately evacuated during the early hours of the event, having been entirely emptied with the exception of a few deaths (three) related to the infrastructure collapses caused by the Sector B Coolant Reserve explosion. It was connected to the rest of the facility using Elevators, but was also left in the dark about the experiments.
Black Mesa Divisions
Black Mesa had two separate divisions, the Black Mesa Science Team, and the Black Mesa Security Force. These two divisions held the main employee base of the Black Mesa Research Facility of approximately 2,083 people, some of the IT staff are uncounted as they're counted as "interns and High school students in Internships."
Black Mesa Science Team
The Black Mesa Science Team was one of the two main divisions of the Black Mesa Employee Base, holding the main part of the facility's Personnel of 2,083 people, having held 65.76% of the entire population of the base. Each scientist was given a different security clearance specific to his or her duty, with an average clearance of Level 5. Like other employees, scientists have an assigned uniform, but aren't banned from wearing casual outfits when on their breaks, and their uniform consisted of a blue shirt, white lab coat, red striped tie, and white (or beige) slacks. Some scientists were forced to wear cleansuits due to the work they participated in, some scientists at the time of the Incident were trained in the use of the MP5 submachine gun as apart of Hazard Course training, but most had no combat skills or experience in the slightest. Positions that a scientist could be assigned were, Research And Development, Research Associate, Hazardous Environment Supervisor, Instructor, and Survey Team, each duty of each position are listed here:
- Research and Development; The largest portion of scientists were assigned to research and development positions, where they conducted experiments and created new technologies. The research conducted ranges in focus from Particle Physics to Business Marketing, and at the time of the Black Mesa incident, many had experience in First Aid, and assisted in aid efforts during and post event.
- Research Associate; Research Associates work alongside R&D scientists, but with a lower status in the employment hierarchy. They are usually required to conduct the more mundane or less desirable portions of a given experiment. Gordon Freeman and Colette Green (Handler of the sample GG-3883) were notable research associated of Isaac Kleiner and his associates and Richard Keller and his associates, respectively.
- Environment Supervisor; Supervisors act in a similar role to research associates in that they assist in experiments, but they are primarily concerned with maintaining a safe work environment.
- Instructor; Scientists will often take on additional work training employees and conducting simulations in the Sector A Training Facility, as themselves or their hologram counterparts.
- Black Mesa Survey Team; The Black Mesa Survey Team held the members of the Black Mesa Science Team that went into the dimension of Xen to extract samples, or crystals, for experimentation. Their activities in Xen led to dozens of deaths within the team, and was controversial in the Black Mesa Human Resources department because of the deaths related to the collection of Xenian Crystals, and the team was also one of the main factors of Xen Sample GG-3883 making its way to the Anti-Mass Spectrometer and causing the Black Mesa Incident in the first place, and no members of the team remained alive during the Black Mesa Incident as it was severed from the main Black Mesa facility until Gordon Freeman had reconnected the two dimensions using the Lambda Complex.
The science team were described as timid and clumsy by their advisors, but offered invaluable assistance to any that needed it in the time of the Black Mesa Incident, having helped Gordon Freeman through his journey across the Black Mesa Incident during December 6 to December 7, and assisted in Aid Efforts post-event. Various notable members of the Black Mesa Science Team to the Government were Gordon Freeman, Doctor Rosenberg, Richard Keller, Gina Cross, Colette Green, Wallace Breen, Isaac Kleiner, Eli Vance, Arne Magnusson, and others.
Black Mesa Security Force
The Black Mesa Security Force was one of the main two divisions of the Black Mesa Employee Base, holding the second part of the facility's personnel of 2,083 people, having held 34.24% of the entire population of the base. Security guards oversaw security throughout the facility. They had different ranks are were granted different security clearances specific to their duty, much like the scientists, with the average clearance of Level 3, as well as colored shifts in specific areas of specific sectors, such as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet shifts. they often stood near doors requiring a special access, and will refuse or grant the access to the sector, depending on the person's clearance level. They also oversee security checkpoints, such as Area 9 Security Checkpoint located along the Black Mesa Transit System. Guards have to report to their related facilities, such as Sector C's Area 3 Medium Security Facilities, before starting their duty.
In an event of an emergency, security guards were required to cooperate with the military and trained assassins, referred to as a dangerous and very efficient clean-up crew (referring to the HECU and later Black-ops divisions sent to Black Mesa). The basic security guard uniform consisted of a blue shirt, black tie, dark blue pants, black assault boots, equipment belts, armor vest and helmet, and their standard issue side-arm was the Glock 17 or Beretta 92FS, but heavier ordnance, such as Shotguns and Colt Python revolvers were available to them, with Grenades being in the process of being given to them before the Black Mesa Incident cancelled such plans. They had several positions as of the Black Mesa Incident, Security Officer, Section Manager, or Instructor, and their purpose will be listed here;
- Security Officer; The vast majority of guards work as security officers, tasked with protecting secured areas, information, and reporting breaches of authority to their administrative sponsor and helping with general maintenance tasks. In rare cases, security officers will be tasked with capturing escaped research specimens.
- Section Manager; The role of section manager is effectively a desk job that consists of directing security officers and assigning tasks.
- Instructor; Security officers will often take on additional work instructing new recruits in the Sector A Training Facility, as themselves or their hologram counterparts, much like the Scientist's Instructors.
Security guards are known to drive Black Mesa SUVs around the facility. Furthermore, security guards on duty next to tram lines and Sector security entrances know the related door codes for tram and airlock doors, which allowed Black Mesa scientists and overall personnel access to their stations. Part of every security guard's equipment loadout included an armor vest and helmet, vital to their personal safety in the Black Mesa Research Facility. As well as day-to-day maintenance safety, the armor was also capable of absorbing (and possibly even deflecting) low-caliber rounds. The security guards were also issued combat boots which are most likely steel toed boots.
Black Mesa Administration
Black Mesa had several administrators (approximately 15 by the time of December 6, 2000.), but has one main one; Wallace Breen. Black Mesa Administrators oversaw both employee divisions and their activities across the facility. Administrators had different ranks just like the other divisions, but were given the same maximum security clearances specific to their duty, with the average clearance of Level 6, as well as colored shifts like the Black Mesa Security Force, such as Brown, White, and Black shifts. They often were seen throughout the Sector D offices as their offices were also located inside that sector, hence the name, Sector D Administration. They enforced or denied tests from occurring, including the infamous test that took place on December 6, 2000, the day of the Black Mesa Incident.
In the event of a council vote, Black Mesa Administrators, all fifteen of them, would vote on a specific test, plan, or hiring process. They often wore a brown suit, a white shirt, black striped tie, and brown slacks. Some of the administrators were able to wear their own casual wear, but were eventually forced to wear the professional clothing of the facility. Various Black Mesa Administrators had fire arms training, but were later reported missing during the incident, often by unknown means. They had several positions as of the Black Mesa Incident, Technology Administrator, Head Administrator, or Security Administrator, and their purpose will be listed here;
- Technology Administrator; The technology administrator held the administrators of the facility that handled the computer-related staff in the facility, often forcing them to hold votes on certain events, and was allegedly one of the main parts of the Black Mesa Incident occurring. There were seven of them as of December 6, 2000.
- Head Administrator; The Head Administrator was Wallace Breen, and he had power over all groups of the Black Mesa Research Facility, being able to shift around events and tests on certain dates, and was able to call votes on certain things, and even cancel some votes. He was able to talk directly to scientists and security, he was able to immediately hire or fire certain employee candidates without approval of the other two administrator groups, and was able to create new rules for the facility on a whim. He was pointed to as the main cause of the Black Mesa Incident and other events that occurred after his involvement.
- Security Administrator; the Security Administrator held the administrators of the facility that handled the security and fire arms staff that were stationed inside of the facility, often forcing them to hold votes on certain events like the Technology Administrator, and most were left in the dark of the plan that was to take place for the Incident before the Black Mesa Incident, and there were seven of them as of December 6, 2000.
Findings, discoveries, inventions, and Hazards
Anti-Mass Spectrometer
Like a mass spectrometer, an Anti-Mass Spectrometer is apart of the technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions in Anti-matter, specifically those collected from the Dimension of Xen. The results are presented as a anti-mass spectrum, a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Anti-mass spectrometry is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex anti-matter mixtures. An anti-mass spectrum is a type of plot of the ion signal as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. These spectra are used to determine the elemental or isotopic signature of a sample, the masses of particles and of molecules, and to elucidate the chemical identity or structure of molecules and other chemical compounds.
The Anti-Mass Spectrometer itself, was a room-sized piece of equipment located in Sector C Test Labs at the Black Mesa Research Facility, used to analyze exotic materials such as Xen crystals. The machine was designed by Dr. Rosenberg in the mid-eighties. Regular mass spectrometers are used to measure the mass and relative concentration of atoms and molecules, allowing the chemical composition and structure of a substance to be analyzed. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer works by scanning a sample with oscillating electromagnetic fields and beams of high-energy plasma, agitating the exotic matter of the Xen crystals. This agitation caused the release of displacement energy that caused tiny releases of Anti-Matter that end in small explosions. Xen crystal samples were brought into the test chamber by a lift from the lower levels and are held by a cart, with physical touching of the crystals being incredibly advised against.
The Black Mesa staff who operate within the spectrometer chamber are jokingly referred to as being "in the barrel." This joke is a reference to the barrel-shaped walls of the chamber and to an old nautical joke. Despite the high levels of energy used in the experiments (running the spectrometer typically requires an HEV Suit, as it causes infertility without it), it was a typically safe procedure. The final experiment of the Black Mesa Anti-Mass Spectrometer, combining an unstable sample Xen crystal (GG-3883) and the disabling of certain safety features, caused a Resonance Cascade and the opening event of the Black Mesa incident.
Resonance Cascade research
Resonance Cascade was a quantum theory that the Anti-Mass Spectrometer could cause a massive world-ending event that could bring the Human race back to the stone age. Such a scenario was envisioned to affect all parts of the Earth with, at the time, theoretical particle storms, Superportals as they're known as now, that would send Xen fauna and life to Earth and the Hostile species would eventually topple the Human races position on the food chain, potentially causing the collapse of civilization, the extinction of humanity, and/or the termination of most Earthly biological life. Besides the immediate property destruction caused by the Superportals, the extended effect of the Xen fauna on Earth's species would force them to either evolve to fill the positions of animals wiped out by Xen fauna, or would either be forced into extinction.
It was researched by the Lambda Labs in conjunction with the Sector C Test Labs as the Anti-Mass Spectrometer was completed, and was referenced by many Black Mesa Personnel on each test, with reports saying that most of them "prayed" that a Resonance Cascade wouldn't occur, which, would be true until December 6, 2000. Their theories were proven mostly true, except for the termination of all Human life and Biological life, but ended in the extinction of 67% of all Earth's species as of November 16, 2004.
Teleportation
The Black Mesa Research Facility was also conducting research on Teleportation alongside their main project, the Anti-Mass Spectrometer during the late eighties. Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner, both physicists in the general field wrote papers on the possibility of the hypothetical transfer of matter and energy from one point to another during the early to mid eighties before their employment at Black Mesa, having been given an opportunity to work alongside scientists in Aperture Science to work on teleportation technology, and their significant discoveries with the Portal device, but went with the research opportunities given by Black Mesa, being pushed by an unknown benefactor that only Kleiner, Vance, and Breen reportedly had contact with. In 1985, Kleiner and Vance were hired to the Sector F Lambda Labs to assist in the research of Teleportation, with Kleiner having seen a successful experiment alongside Gordon Freeman in the University of Innsbruck, Austria, pushing the two scientists (not Gordon) to assist in the research of Matter-Matter transportation.
During the early Nineties, Kleiner and Vance were both relocated to Sector C Test Labs, having been forced into the construction and research of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer which was nearing completion at the time, with the Lambda Labs losing two of their most important researchers, they took a back seat compared to the Sector C Test Labs, which would later employ Gordon Freeman and lead to the Black Mesa Incident. Teleportation couldn't be achieved between two locations on Earth, but Earth to Xen travel was achieved using the Lambda Reactor Portal, which was a 436-gigawatt teleporter that operated for the Black Mesa Survey Team to take samples and research locations in the dimension of Xen for crystals for the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. However, it was destroyed alongside the rest of Black Mesa on December 7, 2000.
Xen
Xen was a separate overlapping dimension discovered by the Black Mesa science team, who regularly traveled there through interdimensional portals through the Lambda Reactor Portal to collect samples and study the multiple species of flora and fauna found within the dimension. Xen is described as a "dimensional transit bottleneck--an area of continual contention." and featured an interdimensional deity like figure, the Nihilanth, who escaped alongside other alien species to escape some interdimensional threat, commonly theorized to be the Combine before escaping onto Earth after the death of the Nihilanth on December 7, 2000. Rather than being an actual planet or a space station, all of the locations inside the dimension were rather asteroid-like islands floating within a nebular void, as described by Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner post-Black Mesa Incident.
Xen was notable for having greatly reduced gravity compared to Earth's, however, given that Xen was comprised of low mass asteroids, it is surprising that there was any appreciable gravitation pull at all, let alone one strong enough to hold an alleged atmosphere filled with DNA-like structures. Xen's atmosphere seemed to be similar to that of Earth's, as the Xen wildlife appears to have no trouble surviving on the planet-like dimension. Furthermore, humans have been reportedly seen breathing in the dimension, a big discovery if there was an opportunity to colonize such a dimension. The exact fate of Xen is unknown, but it was immediately deemed destroyed or "closed" after the death of the Nihilanth, as post-Xen Invasion teleportations taking place independent of the borderworld that many describe the dimension as being.
Interdimensional species
Xen held several creatures that were labelled as hostile by the Black Mesa staff, approximately thirty are known to exist in the dimensional space known as Xen at the time of December 6, 2000. Due to the size of the amount of creatures known, only five will be listed here, in detail;
One of the first creatures to be discovered from the dimension of Xen was the Craniumambulus Parasiticus, or Parasitics, or colloquially known as Headcrabs, are fairly small creatures that are roughly the size of a pumpkin, and act similarly to Felis Catus, or a Stray Cat until provoked by any human that comes into contact with the creature, even if for a couple of seconds, and have enough jumping power to leap up to 10 feet in any direction, to latch onto the heads of unsuspecting victims to feed on. Headcrabs are typically born out of Gonarchs, and are assumed to evolve into Gonarchs if left for long enough. Headcrabs are able to be domesticated just like Felines, and act similarly to cats when domesticated. They, along with other species, were studied in the Advanced Biological Research Lab and the Gamma Labs.
The Canisoculus Sonicus, or Houndeye is a tripedal creature that was found through Xen. Possessing only three legs and a thorax, the Houndeye is faint yellow-green in color, with electric blue tiger-like stripes adorning its spine. In place of a head, there is a large, black insect like compound eye protected by eyelids. Houndeyes communicate through high-pitched sounds that are similar to the barking of dogs, and its behavior and movement are similar to the domesticated dog, and in packs, their offensive moves are usually increased, with their "shockwave" getting progressively more and more blue-ish. Like some of the creatures found on Xen, Houndeyes are studied in Black Mesa's Biodome Complex.
The Xenotherus Icthycanthus, or Ichthyosaur are named after the extinct marine reptile group, the Ichthyosaurs, it resembles them only in its carnivorous ecology and its general size .Perhaps the most characteristic feature of this dark green aquatic creature is its large head-like appendage with an epoccipital bone, and a mouth with sparse sharp teeth in its jaws. An Ichthyosaur has several fins; a long, whip-like tail, used to locomote through large bodies of water; and two arms that extend outwards 2 feet and end with a single dagger-like nail made of what looks like obsidian. The creature uses its limbs to pull itself along the bottom of seas and to impale and hold prey. Ichthyosaurs have been seen around in the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Indian oceans.
The Xenotheris Sapiens, or Vortigaunts, Alien Slaves, or Vorts colloquially, are a hive-minded, energy-wielding, sapient alien race found across the planet, and regularly assist in rebel activity. Vortigaunts are highly intelligent and social creatures, throughout the series, they can often be seen in pairs or groups, and information is spread among them through telepathy. In appearance, a Vortigaunt is humanoid with two legs, two arms with an additional arm protruding from its chest on command. This extra vestigial limb is a physical trait also found in other bipedal, sapient species from Xen, including the Alien Grunt and reportedly, the Nihilanth. ortigaunts have mottled green-brown skin, sharp teeth, and clawed hands. They are slightly hunched, and their faces are dominated by large, single eye with a maroon sclera and a heterochromic red-yellow iris with a yellow pupil surrounded by five smaller eyes. They have two noses on each side of their head. Vortigaunts believe in a binding life force which they call the Vortessence, While the exact nature of this concept is left unclear, the Vortigaunts describe it as the fabric of the universe which connects everything living.
The Amitiabeastia Obscurus, or Mr. Friendly was a creature about the size of a horse, crawling on legs of uneven length with hoofed feet at its back and horn-like spurs on its front. It moves in an awkward, shuffling manner while its appendages drag on the floor emitting noises that resemble fingers on a chalkboard. It would act as a non-hostile scavenger that ate the corpses of dead animals and humans. Once a human is in the vision or is actively disturbing the creature, it would pound the ground and knock the person down, leaving them disoriented or blind for a short amount of time. It is also known to fatally copulate with the victim if angered enough, and is known as "Mr. Friendly" as more of a gag due to it's behavior being seen as similar to a sexual predator.
Knowledge of the Universal Union
The Universal Union, or the Combine is an interdimensional force that has communication and technology similar to that of Humans and Humanity. Though, rather than being one species like the Vortigaunts, it is made up of multiple under the control of the Advisors and Wallace Breen somewhat. Using the Breencasts that Breen regularly has, the Combine empire spans multiple parallel universes, and is inhabited by an unknown number of sentient species with or without their consent, and is governed by a race of artificially evolved Advisors of the Combine Overworld.
It is known that the Black Mesa Research Facility had limited knowledge of the Combine's existence way before the Combine had any knowledge on the Human race, and was given information of them through the Nihilanth and his bi-yearly communications with the Black Mesa Survey Team. At the time, the Black Mesa Research Facility was in contact with the United States government, warning them of an "unimaginable horror" that is "beyond Human expectations" and told the government to expect "Unforeseen consequences." The government and the United Nations were also in knowledge of some elements of the Combine, having the same knowledge of the Black Mesa team, but were largely delegated as hallucinations as an effect of the dimension of Xen on the Human psyche. However, his predictions would come true on January 14, 2001 as they would invade the Earth in only Seven Hours, and the United Nations would later admit that they were warned before hand.
Particle accelerators
The Holden–Wallaker Collider
The Holden–Wallaker Collider (HWC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the Black Mesa Science Team in conjunction with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) during their construction of the Large Hadron Collider that was to open in 2008. It lies in a tunnel 54 kilometers (33.5 miles) in circumference and as deep as 134 meters (439 ft) beneath the Black Mesa area, near the Black Mesa Research Facility. It has an employee base considered independent of Black Mesa, and employees 4,388 people as apart of the CERN program.
The first collisions were achieved in 1998 at an energy of 6.5 teraelectronvolts per beam, setting the first and only world record. The discovery of the Xenian-Wallaker particle at the HWC was announced in 1999, causing a massive increase in funds for both entities, the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the Black Mesa Research Facility, being funded by several European countries and personally by President Bill Clinton on November 5, 1999, respectively. Between 1998 and 1999, the HWC was shut down and upgraded; but those upgrades were unconfirmed and are still unconfirmed as of the Black Mesa Incident. At the end of 2000, it was closed permanently due to the Black Mesa Incident.
The collider has four crossing points where the accelerated particles collide. Nine detectors, each designed to detect different phenomena, are positioned around the crossing points. The LHC primarily collides proton beams, but it can also accelerate beams of heavy ions, such as in lead–lead collisions and proton–lead collisions. The HWC's goal is to allow physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics, including measuring the properties of the x, searching Xenian-Wallaker for the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories, and studying other unresolved questions in particle physics. Many physicists at the time relied on the Holden-Wallaker Collider to assist in the answering of some of the fundamental open questions in physics, which concern the basic laws governing the interactions and forces among elementary particles and deep structure of space and time, particularly the interrelation between quantum mechanics and general relativity.
The collider is contained in a circular tunnel, with a circumference of 53.97 kilometres (33.5 mi), at a depth ranging from 25 to 134 metres (82 to 439 ft) underground. The variation in depth was deliberate, to reduce the amount of tunnel that lies under the plateau to avoid having to excavate a vertical access shaft there. A tunnel was chosen to avoid having to purchase expensive land on the surface and to take advantage of the shielding against background radiation that the Earth's crust provides. The 3.8-metre (12 ft) wide concrete-lined tunnel, constructed between 1983 and 1988, was formerly used to house a planned massive monorail system that the New Mexican government was planning to create in the Black Mesa plateau, but was later cancelled and sold the Black Mesa Facility as they had already finished construction and thought the plan for the monorail system was ineffective and costed too much.
During the Black Mesa Incident on December 6, 2000, the Collider was conducting an experiment when the power suddenly went out, and a massive part of the actively-used tunnel was destroyed as apart of the shockwave of the explosion in the Coolant Reserve sector and the accident at the Anti-Mass Spectrometer set off a chain reaction causing a massive explosion at the BLKMSA control site that also caused a massive nuclear accident at the other control sites hours after the incident had ended, and forced the government to act quickly as a nuclear accident on the level of Chernobyl was going to take place if not cancelled by the Xen invasion causing a chain reaction inside the site of the Collider, ending the accident half-way and acting as the main "nest" of Xen activity for a period of time until the Seven Hour War.
Public exhibits
Bring Your Cat To Work day
The Bring Your Cat To Work day was an event that took place on September 14, 1995. It took place from 9:30 A.M. to 1:45 P.M. and included several cat-related activities that the scientists of Black Mesa could bring their cat in to work on, including a miniature model of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer and Headcrabs for the scientists who brought cats in for work to play with, feed, and take some time off to take care of. Cats were a popular pet in the facility up until the Black Mesa Incident.
As a side event, cats were also given incentives to hunt the various mice that had lived inside the facility for years, and actually solved the rat problem that was inside the Black Mesa facility at the time. A cat fashion contest took place at the event as well, and the top three cats that won were given a medal and a special meat product made from the Craniumambulus Parasiticus, that the cats were incredibly fond of.Photos of cats in the same room as the Anti-Mass Spectrometer were taken, and featured in several Black Mesa press statements after the event. Most of the staff were off-duty due to the event, and allegedly the company was given funding due to the event, this was never confirmed and rather was debated about by the staff of the facility, calling it absurd.
Family Exhibit day
The Family Exhibit Day was an event that took place on December 6, 2000, but was cut short because of the Black Mesa Incident. It was originally intended to last from 7:30 A.M. to 12:30 A.M. and was a typical school day, it being a Monday at the time of the exhibit, and the children that were at the Black Mesa Research Center at the time were given exclusive cards that they could give to the school to excuse their absence, being called "Black Mesa Kiddie Slips." Hundreds of kids attended the Black Mesa Family Exhibit Day. It was to give kids who were fascinated by Physics a quick and more kid-friendly look into research institutes and research centers that were exclusive to those who were employed at those aforementioned sites. It had several events that were planned for the 5 hours that it was supposed to be active for, and they'll be listed here;
- Black Mesa Kiddie Maze; an imitation of the layout of Sector C and D, made into a small maze for kids that were 3-6 to play in. It was monitored by some of the IT staff that were relieved of their duties for the day to come and speak on the Exhibit in front of the kids. It was active from 7:30 to the time of the Black Mesa Incident.
- Black Mesa Kiddie Reading; took place in a stage room that allowed the hundreds of kids that attended the exhibit either on their own with their parents or with a class and a teacher. It was to be read by Eli Vance, who then was replaced by Arne Magnusson who read from 8:30 until the Black Mesa Incident took place.
- Black Mesa Gift Shop; allowed kids to take home mini replicas of machines that the Black Mesa Research Facility had access to at the time. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer was a famous example as that was the one that sold out the fastest, albeit being very expensive at $250 USD. It was destroyed by an explosion from the Sector B Coolant Reserves that took out some of the stage that Arne Magnusson was reading in, killing one attendant.
- Exclusive tours around Black Mesa's Sector D; Planned event from 9:30 to 12:30 that allowed the kids to see around Sector D and have an exclusive look at the Anti-Mass Spectrometer after the expected radiation in the location reached acceptable levels.
The Family Exhibit was cut short during a reading done by Arne Magnusson as the explosion caused by the Sector B Coolant Reserves almost killed him and several children in the crowd. The Black Mesa Incident was underway for some time before this explosion occurred as well, and Magnusson was unaware until alarms started blaring in the vicinity of the stage which caused him to look up and stop reading. As soon as the explosion occurred, he and several other Sector H and Sector I attendants ushered the children out and making sure none was left inside the building. This was one of the driving forces of the initial release of information about the Black Mesa Incident as those kids told the parents what occurred and then the news picked up on the story an hour later and then it blew up nation-wide, and then eventually internationally. From a story from one of the attending Highschoolers, Justin (aged 17), stated he saw the alarms blaring when he was outside the stage with his parents. He and his parents described that he saw bright green flashes of light, which is now known as smaller signature portal storms that allowed the transportation of Xen fauna and wildlife onto the site. He and the other children remain unknown today, as it isn't know if they still are alive or have died because of the forced evacuations done by the United States and the Combine.
Arts at Black Mesa
Black Mesa launched its Cultural Policy for engaging with the arts in 1998, and provided the essential framework and foundations for establishing the Art Institute of Black Mesa, a separate entity of Black Mesa that had many inputs in the design of the top-side facilities of the site, and the eventual construction of the Black Mesa Visitor Center. From 1998–2000, Arts at Black Mesa had fostered creative dialogue between art and physics through residencies, art commissions, exhibitions and events. Artists across all creative disciplines had been invited to Black Mesa to experience how fundamental science pursues the big questions about our universe.
The programs of Arts at Black Mesa are structured according to their values and vision to create bridges between cultures. Each program is designed and formed in collaboration with cultural institutions, other partner laboratories, countries, cities and artistic communities eager to connect with Black Mesa's research, support their activities, and contribute to a global network of art and science. They comprise research-led artistic residencies that take place on-site or remotely. More than 200 artists from 80 countries have participated in the residencies to expand their creative practices at the Research Facility, benefiting from the involvement of 400 artists, architects and Black Mesa staff.
In popular culture
References in video games
- 9:05; eerily predicts the Black Mesa Incident with a newspaper being seen that says, "Disaster at Research Station in Black Mesa."
- Age of Empires II; Features Wallace Breen as a hidden named unit.
- Civilization II; Black Mesa is a buildable wonder for the United States.
- Corpse Party; Newspaper references the construction of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer being completed.
- Daikatana; references Black Mesa as this pornographic film company, with many advertisements for it in Japan in 2455 A.D.
- Deus Ex; with permission from the Black Mesa Corporation, is referenced as one of the main supporters of the National Secessionist Forces.
- Habbo Hotel; Had an event commemorating the Black Mesa Incident on December 8, 2000.
- Perfect Dark; dataDyne's main supporter is the Black Mesa Research Center in the story.
- Pokemon Gold; References the Black Mesa complex as more of a joke, "Go to White Forest if you want more powerful pokémon!" except the location hasn't existed in any Pokémon game.
- Gran Turismo 2; Exclusive map in North America that allows you to drive through the Black Mesa facility during the incident, created more as a joke.
- Prospero; Game created by ValvE that references the Black Mesa facility during Chapter five, "They've Had Friendlies!", with the disaster in the game showing up in a magazine called the "Black Mesa Research Magazine."
- Prospero: Support-Work; References the Black Mesa Incident very loosely, with a single section of a map unimportant to the story taking place in the Black Mesa Ruins, which was an easter egg.
- Prospero 2 Beta Leak; Prospero 2 was leaked in development on December 13, 2000, with one of the main plots being the combined disasters of the Portland Enrichment Center, and the Black Mesa Research Facility causing the near-end of the Human race up until the main character of Prospero 1 returning.
- The Sims; The Sim is able to work at a facility called the "Color Desert Research Facility" in the "Color Desert" section of the map, a clear reference to the Black Mesa landmass.
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2; the Windows release of the game contained the downloadable content pack, "Black Mesa Skating Facility," where you're able to skate through the Visitor Center.
References in movies
- Air Force One; the President's aid is named "Wallace Breen"
- Armageddon; Black Mesa's logo is seen on the Oil Rig on a shipping container that was used as a prop.
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Black Mesa is portrayed humorously, being called "BBCRF," a lewd joke.
- Charlie's Angels; Dylan's phone says "Black Mesa Contact" at the end of the film.
- Deep Impact; Same case as Armageddon, used on a shipping container prop.
- Dude, Where's My Car?; The Black Mesa Research Facility is referenced on the Radio which is promptly turned off by Jesse (Ashton Kutcher).
- Forrest Gump; Forrest attempts to get a job at Black Mesa, but is denied due to his intellectual disability.
- Groundhog Day; Black Mesa's logo is seen on the newspaper with the text "NEW ANTI-MASS SPECTROMETER OPENED IN BLACK MESA."
- Independence Day; the Canyon flyover features the entrances to the outside sections of Black Mesa.
- Pulp Fiction; humorously depicts Black Mesa during the infamous interrogation scene, with Samuel L. Jackson's character mentioning, "You're not testing me like Black Mesa and their fucking machine, right?"
- Space Jam; Black Mesa is one of the sponsors of the event in the movie.
- The Fifth Element; the flying cars shown in the film are created by the "Black Mesa Car Corporation."
- The Green Mile; the beginning of the film has an ad-break that features an ad by the Black Mesa Research Facility, advertising their Nominate a Special Person day.
- The Remains of the Day; Black Mesa's former 1955 logo seen on a newspaper in the film, with text saying, "DESERT FACILTY BOUGHT BY PHYSICS INSTITUTE," but portrayed incorrectly because Black Mesa was a research foundation, and not a physics institute.
- Waterworld; mentions an event at Black Mesa as one of the reasons as the cause of the flooding on Earth.
References in music
- 2001 by Dr. Dre; referenced in Explosive that features a line referencing the quantum event (that would be caused by a Black Mesa creation, indirectly mentioning it), the Resonance Cascade, and predicts it occurring in 2003.
- Aquarius by Boards of Canada; Played in the Cafeteria for a short amount of time between January 1998 and January 1999.
- Björk; Held a concert in the Cafeteria of Black Mesa.
- Donkey Rhubarb by Aphex Twin; a Japanese release had the song "Black Mesa" featured on it, being described as a recreation of the sound of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer in music form.
- Foo Fighters; mentioned in a concert, with Dave Grohl stating, "This song is for that fucked up research center, Black Mesa!" and immediately played an unrelated song.
- Hours by David Bowie; first distributed through Black Mesa's servers by Bowie himself as a test of Internet-related releases, before it was released on the public internet.
- Kid A by Radiohead; leaked by several staff of the facility, leading to a massive lawsuit that was later cancelled by the members of Radiohead, saying "They'd fuck up somehow anyway to actually make up for their actions" on December 4, 2000.
- Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins; Black Mesa is referenced very loosely, only its Anti-Mass Spectrometer being referenced in incredibly loose ways.
- No Surprises by Radiohead; The Sector K Solenoid at Black Mesa's particle accelerator was used as the basis for Radiohead's No Surprises EP
- NSYNC; All NSYNC music was banned from being played inside the Black Mesa facility, leading to the band calling Black Mesa uncultured.
- OK Computer by Radiohead; Black Mesa is referenced in several music videos for the songs on the album, with Thom Yorke speaking about it afterwards, calling it a massive mistake that would lead to a huge problem in the near future, eerily predicting the Black Mesa Incident.
- Slipknot; The band was given an exclusive tour of the facility, though Sector G and E were ignored because of "classified" information.
- Spinner by Brian Eno and Jah Wobble; features a song named "Black Mesa" and is ambience of computer noises, supposed to simulate the environment at Black Mesa.
- The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails; Black Mesa is the name of one of the songs on the album, though the lyrics are unrelated.
- Tupac Shakur; was to hold a concert at a certain location within Black Mesa property, but was shot to death before such an even could take place.
References in anime & manga
- 21 Emon; One of the robot butlers has "Property of Black Mesa, 20XX" written on it.
- Boys Be...; It and it's Anti-Mass Spectrometer are referenced in a television documentary named "Black Mesa" about the Black Mesa spanning Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
- Cowboy Bebop; Referenced as "Dark Matter Research Station" as a loose reference.
- End of Evangelion; referenced again, with an enemy tank with the label, "Built by Black Mesa"
- Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President; The protagonist, Kenneth Yamaoka, references the Black Mesa facility, saying that the facility should be given more grants by the government, and promised to make it a public company, rather than private.
- Ghost Stories; While browsing for the website Yomi-net, they stumble across an internet news site about the Black Mesa Incident before returning back to the page to search for the Yomi-net website.
- Gulliver Boy; Referenced loosely as the "Black Magic Research Facility."
- Hamtaro; References the Black Mesa Incident in Season 1 Episode 23 titled "Maxwell's Big Scoop!" as a television broadcast that the character's are distracted from.
- Nekketsu Saikyō Go-Saurer; the Mechs are constructed by the Black Mesa Corporation.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion; During Episode 5, Black Mesa is mentioned directly by General Katsuragi, saying, "It's like that Anti-Mass Spectrometer accident all over again.." being an eerie prediction of the Black Mesa Incident.
- Pokémon (TV Series); referenced in early episodes through advertisements.
- Popee the Performer; referenced in season 1 episode 11 when the main character swallows the Black Mesa logo.
- Shoot!; Black Mesa is referenced in a parody logo on a shirt, saying White Forest, predicting the compound that Black Mesa would later purchase in 1996.
- Tasuke, the Samurai Cop; referenced alongside the Warp record label in Episode 4.
- You're Under Arrest; one of the deuteragonists, Natsumi Tsujimoto, references Black Mesa, saying, "Eh, you heard about that Anti-Mass Spectrometer-thingie-majig? Miyuki, Miyuki!"
See also
- A-class articles
- Black Mesa Research Facility
- Lambda (conworld)
- New Mexico
- International organizations based in North America
- International research institutes
- Nuclear research institutes
- Organizations based in Black Mesa
- Particle physics facilities
- Physics research institutes
- Research institutes in North America
- Research institutes in the United States
- Science and technology in North America
- Science diplomacy
- Scientific organizations established in 1945
- Holden–Wallaker Collider
- Buildings and structures in New Mexico
- Laboratories in the United States
- Physics beyond the Standard Model
- Underground laboratories
- Government buildings completed in 1953
- E-Science