Month: August 2024

Enlarge / Muscle atrophy is a known hazard of spending time on the International Space Station. (credit: NASA)

Muscle-on-chip systems are three-dimensional human muscle cell bundles cultured on collagen scaffolds. A Stanford University research team sent some of these systems to the International Space Station to study the muscle atrophy commonly observed in astronauts.

It turns out that space triggers processes in human muscles that eerily resemble something we know very well: getting old. “We learned that microgravity mimics some of the qualities of accelerated aging,” said Ngan F. Huang, an associate professor at Stanford who led the study.

Space-borne bioconstructs

“This work originates from our lab’s expertise in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. We received funding to do a tissue engineering experiment on the ISS, which really helped us embark on this journey, and became curious how microgravity affects human health,” said Huang. So her team got busy designing the research equipment needed to work onboard the space station. The first step was building the muscle-on-chip systems.

Enlarge / Even mainstream CPUs like the Core i5-13400 could theoretically be affected by Intel's crashing issues. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Intel will be releasing a microcode update to prevent further damage to crashing 13th- and 14th-generation desktop processors sometime this month if it can stick to its previously announced schedule. This fix should be available via BIOS updates from PC and motherboard makers and from Microsoft as a Windows update. But it will take time for those updates to roll out to users, and Intel has said that processors that are already exhibiting crashes have been permanently damaged and won't be fixed by the microcode update.

In an effort to provide peace of mind to buyers and cover anyone whose CPU is subtly damaged but not showing explicit signs of instability, Intel is extending the warranty on all affected 13th- and 14th-generation CPUs by an additional two years, Tom's Hardware reports. This raises the warranty on a new boxed Intel CPU from three years to five, and it applies to both previously purchased processors and new ones that are bought from today onward. For processors that came installed in pre-built PCs, Intel says users are covered, but that they should reach out to their PC's manufacturer for support. Those customers should only contact Intel directly if they have a problem getting a new CPU from the PC company.

Though owners of high-end chips like the Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K were the most frequently affected by the crashing issue, Intel says that any 13th- or 14th-generation desktop CPU with a base power of 65 W or higher could ultimately be affected. Intel's list of affected CPUs includes K- and KF-series CPUs from the 13th- and 14th-generation Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 families, and also non-K CPUs in the Core i9 and Core i7 families. But slower, more budget-oriented chips like the Core i5-13400 aren't listed.