Acknowledgements

First of all … I would like to thank my children who have very patiently put up with Papa talking endlessly about his crickets and his flowers for the last two decades.

I thank my beloved wife Carol … an unfailing source of love, guidance, patience and support, and who has fed and clothed us all as I have spent all my spare time, against all odds, researching and drawing all these threads together. She has a doctorate in history and archaeology, and so I especially thank her for listening to me when absolutely no-one else would … and even though she did not always immediately grasp what I was trying to say!

I thank Raymond Flood, University Lecturer in Computing Studies and Mathematics at Oxford University, who very kindly and unexpectedly sent me a five-page handwritten letter in answer to a rather ridiculous question I sent him about population behaviour, and which helped convince me, when I first set out, that what I wanted to do could very likely be done.

I thank Paul Levine of Zero K Designs who, with a chance remark, followed up by a discussion and some appropriate references, helped me to plug a metrological gap I had been having trouble plugging in the development of my ideas.

I particularly thank Professor Lindsay Hinck, of the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University College of Santa Cruz. She patiently read through a very early version of my ideas, and so became the first professional scientist of any note to take anything I had to say seriously.

I thank Wisteria Loeffler who was the first to start thinking that it was perhaps worth while to begin working with me on the design for some kind of practical setup for the experimental testing of my theory and ideas.

I thank Tosha Comendant who talked things over with both Wisteria and me; and who eventually introduced me to Susan Lambrecht, Assistant Professor of Botany at San Jose State University.

I simply cannot thank Susan enough for her realization and her belief that things would very likely work out exactly the way I said they would; and that even if they didn’t, then knowledge would still be advanced; and for her dedication and her patience in the face of the many ups and downs that occurred. Nobody could have asked for more. I also sincerely thank Maria Bangal, Chris Beebe, and Kevin Chaung who supervised the experiments and collected the actual data.

I thank Dr. Josh Blaustein, Chair of the Chemistry Department at Cabrillo College, Aptos, Santa Cruz, for his timely, helpful, and productive assistance when I explained the nature of this research to him and he started casting around immediately for someone to help conduct the needed experiments.

I also thank Professor Richard Montgomery, of the Mathematics Department at UC Santa Cruz who corresponded with me, supported me by agreeing that my ideas were not at all outrageous, that they were indeed mathematically sound, and who did his best to show me how I could perhaps make them a little more rigorous, although his ability to explain was not matched by my ability to comprehend.

And … I am so very greatly indebted to Professor Marc Mangel, of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and current holder of the Jack Baskin Endowed Chair in Technology and Information Management at UC Santa Cruz. He was the first scientist with detailed knowledge of this area who was prepared to patiently read what I sent him, even though it came from such an inauspicious source. He not only read early drafts of my work, but was prepared to meet with me, to talk to me, to have email correspondence with me, and to encourage and support me in the preparation and submission of this paper.

I thank all these people and I give them due credit for what they all did for me and the kindness and help they gave to me. Nevertheless … all errors are mine and mine alone and should definitely not be attributed to any of them.

Kofi Busia