The Research Triangle Park is a strange place. It feels a little creepy with GlaxoSmithKline’s North American headquarters, a major IBM campus, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and Eli Lilly all within half a mile of each other. The presence of these companies alone makes RTP feel like the setting of the next Michael Crighton novel, where experimental science goes awry. Add to that, however, the security cameras at every intersection and the guarded checkpoints at the entrances of most campuses.
Rumor has it that somewhere in the Park is where Monsanto developed Agent Orange. Every now and then you can see official looking health inspectors taking soil samples from the woods that lie between campuses. True or not, I wouldn’t plant a food garden anywhere in RTP, if you know what I mean.
Occasionally, when I ride the bike path through the woods to work, I half-expect some strange, genetically mutated monster to confront me on the trail. Between the pharmaceuticals research, the genetics research, the nanotechnology research, and the ghost of Monsanto, such a scientific “accident” is as likely to happen here as anywhere else in the world.
