The idea came to Jeffrey Macdonald on frequent 3½-hour drives to Beaufort, where the associate biomedical engineering professor is scientific co-director at the Martin Ryan Institute for marine science.

On his way to the coast, Macdonald (photo on right) passed dozens of hog farms. North Carolina is the second largest U.S. hog producer behind Iowa. More than 10 million hogs live in the state, the vast majority of them near the coast.

Events taking place the week of Oct. 19 in the Research Triangle area that are open to the public: 

Monday

4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy, Room 04

Ewing Lecture on Ethics in Journalism: Adventures in Journalism, from CIA Secret Prisons to Walter Reed.

Speaker: Dana Priest, Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post investigative reporter

Tuesday

8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Wake Technical Community College, 9101 Fayetteville Road, Raleigh

GlaxoSmithKline gets hit with a $2.5 million jury verdict, Talecris borrows $550 million two weeks after going public and Affiliated Computer Services plans to hire 150 at its call center in Raleigh.

Jury finds GSK negligent

A Philadelphia jury found that GlaxoSmithKline failed to properly warn doctors of birth defect risks the antidepressant Paxil posed when prescribed to pregnant women.