At Carleton College, Jim Williams studied math and physics and learned how scientists think. And he longed for the Southern California sunshine. At U.C. Berkeley, Jim lived two blocks from the Oakland Black Panther headquarters and learned about blacks' problems with cops. He got a Ph.D. in mathematics.

At Berkeley and later at BGSU and the MITRE Corporation, Jim wrote research papers in topology, algebra, category theory, logic, automated deduction, information security, and integrity of medical information systems.

After retiring, Jim became curious why his doctors thought medical marijuana could help with his prostate cancer. He learned that CBD, THC, and a dozen other cannabis compounds are relevant to serious illness. He went after the details.

The result is a book on cannabis compounds for medical conditions such as arthritis, intractable pain, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, alcoholism, heart disease, and cancer.

In writing citations and references for the book, Jim developed a groundbreaking citation architecture that features citations whose references show up as mouseover notes. The notes are annotated with icons automatically gleaned from links to the referenced articles.