hey guys it is great to see this thread slowly developing... SWIM has unfortunately been unable to conduct any experiments as he has no space at the moment and has been sidetracked with other functions of life...

it would be good to summarise some of the progress that has been established so far.  SWIMs knowledgeable FOAF kemist has indicated that the zinc route is definitely feasible.  Although SWIM plans to validate this particular hypothesis soonish, it would be great if anyone could continue to help with the confirmation of the development of this tek.  I will try to summarize all of the useful info that has been established so far asap...