Paradise Rediscovered: The Roots of Civilisation, Volume 2

This book attempts a methodical reconstruction of the Neolithic society which gave rise to the first civilisation, leading to the possibility that some ancient peoples commanded a now lost recipe for extended life-spans (the legendary elixir of life). The work spans mythology, linguistics, ancient texts, astronomy, earth sciences, human genetics, and the cell biology of ageing. Its scholarly but colloquial and non-academic provocative style is intended for an interested but non expert audience. 
Note: This is Volume 2 of a 2 volume set. Volume 1 (ISBN 9781921869448) contains the first five chapters of the set.

Mike Cahill studied Zoology and Biochemistry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, graduating with BSc (Hons 1) in Zoology. In 1995 he obtained a PhD in molecular cell biology on gene regulation and cell signalling from the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine of the same university while working as an external student based at the Medizinische Hochschule in Hannover, Germany. He remained in Germany for 17 years between 1990 and 2008, during which time he established a proteomics activity at the University of Tuebingen and then became a scientific cofounder and the Chief Research Officer of the biotechnology company ProteoSys AG (Mainz Germany) between 2000 -2007. In 2008 he moved back to Australia to lecture in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, NSW. He has published over 40 peer reviewed scientific research articles, review articles and book chapters, has authored multiple technology development and medical research application patents, and has served as peer reviewer for numerous international scientific journals as well as for the national medical research councils of Australia and Georgia. For more about Mike Cahill see his staff web page at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.