Fusion vs fission

A misanthropic sociopath might seem like a poor choice to front any education and public outreach programme, but the team behind NASA’s Spitzer space telescope has hired GLaDOS anyway. Well, voice actress Ellen McLain at any rate. McLain reprises her role in a STEM-learning video that sees the beleaguered AI explaining the difference between nuclear fusion and fission to two hapless engineers to get herself hooked up to NASA’s servers. It’s entertaining, and makes us wish the science videos we were made to sit through in school had half of GLaDOS’s cold, inimitable charm.