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Fibre found in everyday foods could help remove forever chemicals from our bodies

Fibre found in everyday foods could help remove forever chemicals from our bodies

Independent2 days ago

A new study suggests that eating a fibre supplement found naturally in oats, barley and rye before meals could help flush out toxic forever chemicals from the body.
PFAS, known as forever chemicals, are used in products like non-stick cookware and cosmetics and have been linked to health conditions, including decreased fertility and a higher risk of some cancers.
The study found that beta-glucan fibre molecules in oats can bind to PFAS in the digestive system, potentially reducing their levels in the body.
Researchers found a nearly 10 per cent drop in two dangerous PFAS types (PFOA and PFOS) in participants who took an oat fibre supplement before each meal for four weeks.
Scientists believe the findings offer a first step in formulating a dietary intervention to remove PFAS from the body, though further studies are needed with larger samples and longer intervention periods.

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Dead Sea Scrolls mystery deepens as AI finds manuscripts to be much older than thought
Dead Sea Scrolls mystery deepens as AI finds manuscripts to be much older than thought

The Independent

time41 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Dead Sea Scrolls mystery deepens as AI finds manuscripts to be much older than thought

Many of the manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls may be much older than previously thought, according to a new study that could transform our understanding of their Jewish and Christian origins. The mysterious scrolls are a collection of ancient Jewish texts mainly written in Hebrew that were found in 1947 by nomadic Arab shepherds looking for a lost sheep. They are the oldest Bible texts ever found, containing passages of the Old Testament from over 1,800 to 2,000 years ago. Until now, a study of ancient handwriting suggests most of the scrolls are from the third century BC to the second century AD. Some date-bearing manuscripts written in Aramaic/Hebrew have been estimated to be from the fifth or fourth centuries BC, and the late first and early second century AD. But since most of the scrolls do not have any other date-bearing manuscripts for reference, the ages of the individual manuscripts haven't been precisely estimated. Archaeologists have yet to accurately date over a thousand manuscripts and fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls collection. Now, researchers have combined radiocarbon dating and an AI prediction model to arrive at a more accurate estimate of the age of individual manuscripts. Scientists found that two biblical scroll fragments of the scrolls come from the same time as their presumed biblical authors. These fragments have been objectively dated to between the fourth century BC and the second century AD, according to the latest study published in the journal PLOS One. In the study, scientists trained their AI date-prediction model to analyse handwritten ink-trace patterns and digitised manuscripts. The model was trained to analyse intricate geometries of the ink trace, looking into the curvature of each character's shape, helping it probe the texts beyond what traditional palaeography offered. Researchers cross-verified the AI model with texts that have already been convincingly dated. They found that it could predict the age of manuscripts just from the writing style with an uncertainty of some 30 years. Scientists then used the AI to date roughly one thousand Dead Sea manuscripts. They first made the model analyse the digitised images of 135 scrolls and let professional palaeographers evaluate the AI's predictions. It then confirmed that many Dead Sea Scrolls are much older than previously thought, transforming our understanding of the development of two ancient Jewish scripts called "Hasmonaean" and "Herodian." Scroll fragments written in these scripts could belong to the late second century BC instead of the current prevailing view of the mid-first century BC. Manuscripts in the Hasmonaean-type script could be older than their current estimate of 150 BC to 50 BC, researchers found. It still remains a mystery who exactly wrote the manuscripts. Researchers suspect it was an anonymous author from the Hellenistic period of the third century BC. The latest findings impact our understanding of political and intellectual developments in the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods, scientists say.

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