Latest news with #Schwieterman
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jan Schwieterman, ‘Good Burger' Actor, Dies at 52
Jan Schwieterman, who portrayed the antagonist Kurt Bozwell alongside Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell in the 1997 Nickelodeon spinoff movie Good Burger, has died. He was 52. Schwieterman died Feb. 28 at Mercy Hospital in Washington, Missouri, his family announced. His brother, Chad, wrote on Facebook that he recently had been diagnosed with 'an aggressive form' of Stage 4 cancer. More from The Hollywood Reporter Wings Hauser, Actor in 'Vice Squad' and 'A Soldier's Story,' Dies at 77 Marty Callner, Director of Iconic Music Videos, Concert Specials and Stand-Up Shows, Dies at 78 Philip Rogers, 'Love on a Rooftop' and 'Shoot to Kill' Producer, Dies at 90 In Paramount's Good Burger, directed by Brian Robbins — who co-created the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That, from which the movie emanated — Schwieterman starred as Bozwell, the evil owner and manager of Mondo Burger, rival of the Good Burger restaurant where Thompson and Mitchell's Dexter and Ed work. Born in Bluffton, Indiana, on Sept. 30, 1972, Jan Patrick Schwieterman was an Eagle Scout before he moved to California soon after high school to become an actor, and he landed his first roles on episodes of ABC's McKenna and NBC's ER in 1994. After appearing on three installments of ABC's Forever, he landed on Good Burger. Schwieterman's résumé also included a stint as Lewis on four episodes of the first season (1998-99) of The WB series Felicity and work in the films Warlock III: The End of Innocence (1999), American Intellectuals (1999), Fallen Arches (2000) and, his final credit, Along the Way (2007). His family noted that he loved to travel and play Dungeons and Dragons. In addition to his brother, survivors include his parents, Clara and LeeRoy, and his sisters, Megan and Vanessa. Donations in his memory can be made to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time
The Hill
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
Jan Schwieterman, star of Nickelodeon's ‘Good Burger' movie, dies at 52
(NEXSTAR) – Jan Schwieterman, an actor known to Nickelodeon fans as the villain from the 'Good Burger' film adaptation, has died at the age of 52, his family announced. His date of death was listed as Feb. 28 in an online obituary. 'It is with a heavy heart that I share the passing of my brother, Jan (JP) Schwieterman,' the actor's brother Chad Schwieterman wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month, revealing that Schwieterman had only 'recently' been diagnosed with 'an aggressive form of stage 4 cancer.' 'Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we navigate this difficult time,' the post concluded. As an actor, Schwieterman only has a handful of credits to his name on IMDb, though they include roles on such shows as 'ER,' 'Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction,' and 'Felicity.' Perhaps his biggest role came in 1997, when he starred opposite Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell in 'Good Burger,' the film adaptation of the Thompson and Mitchell's sketch from the Nickelodeon TV series 'All That.' Schwieterman played Kurt Bozwell, the film's antagonist and the owner of rival restaurant Mondo Burger. His final film credit on IMDb is listed as 2007's 'Along the Way.' His LinkedIn page suggested that he had retired from acting and worked as an IT professional specializing in security. His obituary also indicated photography, martial arts and painting. A memorial was held for Schwieterman earlier this month in Berger, Mo., near his birthplace of Hermann. He's survived by three siblings and both parents, according to the obit.
The Independent
13-03-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Strange aliens could be hiding in gases, scientists say
Alien life could be hiding in gases, researchers have said. We could find extraterrestrial beings in gas on faraway planets that are very unlike our own, according to their new study. The gases themselves have been relatively neglected as a possible place to search for alien life. But it could actually be relatively easy and quick to examine, the scientists say. We could even do so by looking at exoplanets using Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope, they said. The gases themselves are called methyl halides. On Earth, they are usually made by bacteria, fungi, or similar – and they are made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms attached to a halogen atom. It would not be possible to see them on Earth-like planets, which are too small and dim to see with the Webb telescope. But other worlds, known as Hycean planets, could be possible places to search. 'Unlike an Earth-like planet, where atmospheric noise and telescope limitations make it difficult to detect biosignatures, Hycean planets offer a much clearer signal,' said Eddie Schwieterman, University of California Riverside astrobiologist and paper co-author. We don't know what the life forms that would produce such gases would look like – but they might look totally different from anything we've seen before 'These microbes, if we found them, would be anaerobic. They'd be adapted to a very different type of environment, and we can't really conceive of what that looks like, except to say that these gases are a plausible output from their metabolism,' Schwieterman said in a statement. The work is described in a new article, 'Examining the Potential for Methyl Halide Accumulation and Detectability in Possible Hycean-type Atmospheres', published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Does exoplanet K2-18b host alien life or not? Here's why the debate continues
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In 2023, debate erupted in the astronomy community about whether life could exist on an exoplanet called K2-18b. It started when a group of scientists published a paper suggesting a specific chemical, dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, may exist in the planet's atmosphere. A consensus wasn't reached at the time, and conversation has certainly continued into the present. Many astronomers wonder if the DMS signature from K2-18b can really be trusted, and even question whether DMS is a reliable proxy for the presence of life to begin with. If not, maybe the discussion about K2-18b's habitability is, more or less, pointless. Now, new research raises major questions about the original K2-18b study — and, in fact, the answers could have considerable implications for the quest to find life beyond Earth as a whole. Scientists think they've found evidence of DMS on a comet, meaning that life may not be required for its creation, which casts doubt on the use of the chemical as a marker of life. In an ideal world, researchers could look for life on exoplanets by sending spacecraft or astronauts to these worlds' surfaces to look for molecules that are only produced by life, explained Edward Schwieterman, an astrobiologist at the University of California at Riverside, who is not associated with the original DMS findings. Researchers could deploy a probe to search for things like RNA, DNA and other biomolecules we know are connected to life (as we know it, of course) and could use their findings as evidence of extraterrestrial activity. However, a few major challenges stand in the way of this strategy. For one, it is immensely time-consuming and expensive to send spacecraft to other planets in the solar system — let alone beyond. Without collecting samples from a planet's surface, we don't yet have the technology to identify specific biological molecules with ease. "Molecules like DNA simply cannot accumulate in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in a way that could be identifiable by space-based or ground-based telescopes," Schwieterman told Scientists are therefore left searching for signs of life beyond Earth using what telescopes can indeed see — light spectra. Astronomers can collect information about light wavelengths traveling through and getting blocked by a planet's atmosphere and, based on various properties of these wavelengths, make educated guesses about composition of the atmosphere itself. This data "can often have multiple different interpretations, so this is really, really tricky," Joanna Barstow, a planetary scientist at The Open University, told A chemical found in the atmosphere around an exoplanet that leads researchers to believe the planet may harbor life is called a biosignature. On Earth, DMS is mostly produced by bacteria and phytoplankton in oceans, so many astrobiologists consider it a biosignature. That's why it was a surprise to Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge and lead author on the paper that spurred debate about K2-18b, when his team discovered signs of DMS in the planet's atmosphere. K2-18b orbits a star over 700 trillion miles away from Earth and is considered potentially habitable because of the amount of starlight it gets; there is also speculation of water vapor existing in its atmosphere. Furthermore, Madhusudhan and some other astronomers suspect the exoplanet has mild temperatures and a liquid ocean, both crucial factors for life we're familiar with on Earth. Madhusudhan's team's finding of DMS therefore only seemed to strengthen the case for life on K2-18b. "It's weak evidence," he told but "if it turns out to be actually right that there is DMS, then that is a big deal." But some scientists don't accept that what Madhusudhan found around K2-18b really was DMS. "I do not believe we yet have convincing evidence of the presence of DMS in K2-18b's atmosphere," Schwieterman said, attributing his suspicion to the new publication's fairly low statistical confidence. When other researchers claim to have detected a biosignature, he considers two factors before trusting them. First, he confirms the detected signal is real — that the observers have actually found the molecule they say they have. Then, he ensures people are attributing the creation of that molecule to the correct source — in this case, some sort of life. Schwieterman and many other astronomers believe Madhusudhan's detection of DMS fails both steps of verification. Ryan MacDonald, an astrophysicist at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the new research, explained that he's found molecular signatures at similar confidence levels that "completely vanish" when the same data is run through different models. The outcomes of analysis can change "depending on the fine minutiae of how you treat the data," he told adding that "we're all still learning" how to analyze this kind of data because its quality is higher than ever before. He would need to see stronger statistics to be convinced that DMS is really present in the atmosphere of K2-18b. Schwieterman also has his own concerns about attributing this signature to DMS. He explained that the specific way DMS interacts with light can yield signals similar to those of some other gases, like methane, or signals that represent nothing at all. "It would be easy to attribute a signature to DMS that's actually the result of another gas or noise source," he said. "What we'd want is a lot more data in order to confirm our attribution of DMS to that measurement." Madhusudhan defended his team's decision to report what they found, even at a relatively low confidence level: "If you're honestly doing your research and you found the signal at [this confidence level], you ought to be reporting that. Whether you consider it to be potential evidence or not is subjective to some extent… but you should still report it." Some online articles, however, went as far as to suggest the group may have found alien life on the distant planet. Even Madhusudhan is hesitant to agree with such conclusions, even preliminarily. Beyond the question of whether DMS was actually detected, researchers are investigating whether the molecule is a good marker of life in the first place. The best way to decide is to see if there are other explanations for its presence at a high enough quantity to be observed, Barstow explained. There are several cases of scientists finding ways to produce other molecules traditionally thought of as biosignatures without the use of life. In 2023, for example, researchers found a way to turn carbon dioxide and helium into oxygen, which is often used as an indicator of life. Similarly, in 1975 chemists were able to produce DMS in the lab using hydrogen sulfide, methane and electricity, proving that life isn't necessary for its creation. (Madhusudhan doesn't think this process would yield enough DMS on K2-18b to be observable.) In November 2024, a separate research group published evidence of DMS signatures from a comet. Their research supports a new idea of DMS production, one that uses basic elements from across space and again doesn't rely on life. Nora Hänni, a chemist at the University of Bern and lead investigator of the new study, explained how DMS could transfer from comets to planets. A comet could potentially land on a planet and deposit chemicals into its atmosphere, she told "so it could be like a spaceship, basically." "If you want to detect [DMS] in an atmosphere," Hänni added, "it has to also survive the atmospheric chemistry, the irradiation … Maybe you would have to observe a potential contamination right after the impact, or you would have to have a lot of impacts and some material could accumulate." Many unknowns remain. The properties of the exoplanet K2-18b and its atmosphere are largely a mystery, so it's unclear how long — or even whether — DMS could truly survive. There's also little information about how comets function outside of our solar system. Hänni isn't pushing the hypothesis that comets are responsible for DMS on K2-18b, but she wants to ensure that this scenario is considered as a possibility before any conclusions are drawn about the DMS findings. RELATED STORIES: — Did the James Webb Space Telescope really find life beyond Earth? Scientists aren't so sure — Exoplanet's surface may be covered in oceans, James Webb Space Telescope finds — The Water Vapor Find on 'Habitable' Exoplanet K2-18 b Is Exciting — But It's No Earth Twin Madhusudhan is dismissive of the comet theory, however, because of the amount of DMS he says is needed to be observable in an exoplanet's atmosphere. "How much do you need to deliver for it to be observable in a planetary atmosphere? Comets don't happen by the hour," he said. He thinks that for this method of production to explain the signature he found, the number of comets crashing into K2-18b and bringing DMS with them would need to be unrealistically high. Clearly, there's more work to be done before there's a consensus on if this signature is real and if DMS is a reliable biosignature. MacDonald explained that more telescope observations of K2-18b's atmosphere from multiple instruments would be the "gold standard" to prove if DMS is actually present. And that work is in progress. "We are getting more observations, others are getting more observations," Madhusudhan said. "So, over the next year, we will see whether or not the molecule is there."
CBS News
11-02-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
Second day in a row of major service disruptions on CTA has riders frustrated
CHICAGO (CBS) -- If you were late to work Tuesday morning because of CTA train delays, you were not alone. Switching issues on elevated trains in the Loop delayed thousands of morning commutes. The switching problem near the Clark/Lake stop in the Loop led to significant delays on the Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, and Purple lines on Tuesday morning. While the problem was fixed by midday, CTA officials still weren't sure Tuesday afternoon what caused the equipment malfunction. Coming on the heels of a train derailment on the Green Line on the South Side on Monday, and a major snowstorm expected on Wednesday, CTA riders who rely on the mass transit system said they're losing their cool with the CTA's inability to pinpoint what's going wrong. Caela Guera gave up on the CTA on Tuesday, after train delays doubled her normal commute time. "It usually takes me an hour just to get to work, but today like almost two hours," she said. "That's why I'm taking an Uber to work. I'm not going to get to work on time today at all." Guera was late to work and the CTA was late in pinpointing what led to major delays and service disruptions on the five lines that use the elevated tracks in the Loop during the morning rush. The CTA warned riders Tuesday morning of "significant delays near Clark/Lake due to track switching problems," which prompted the transit agency to switch the Pink and Purple lines to the outer elevated tracks in the Loop rather than the usual inner track. On top of the switching problem in the Loop, CTA riders Tuesday morning also faced an out-of-service elevator at the Linden stop on the Red, Purple, and Yellow lines, and Purple Line Express trains rerouted to the Red Line subway tunnels downtown. "It can be hard sometimes to identify the problem. I think, though, today's problems were so widespread that we just need clear statements of possibilities of what might have gone wrong," said DePaul University transportation expert Joe Schwieterman. Schwieterman said it's been a tough week for the CTA, with Tuesday's delays coming after one day after a Green Line train derailed on the South Side, forcing commuters to evacuate a train by emergency ladders. For hours, the Green Line didn't run any trains between the 63rd/Ashland and 35th-Bronzeville-IIT stops. While trains began running again as far south as Garfield by Monday afternoon, as of Tuesday, the Green Line still wasn't running between Garfield and 63rd/Ashland. " Riders, I think, are reluctant to build a life around transit when you have these kind of uncertainties week after week," Schwieterman said. That reluctance is only made worse as a major winter weather event prepares to barrel down on Chicago tomorrow. All the CTA could say about the switching issues that created the cascade of delays on Tuesday was that they were not weather-related, but the result of malfunctioning equipment. Beyond that, no answers. "A lot of riders, I think, are left hanging right now, and it's frustrating," Schwieterman said. While Guera said her commute lasted about an hour longer than normal, CTA representatives said Monday morning's delays were "minor," with the Pink and Purple lines seeing delays of about 15 minutes. CBS News Chicago has asked repeatedly to interview agency leadership about these issues, but requests have been denied. As for Wednesday's winter storm, CTA officials said it's possible there could be "some unforeseen delays" due to the snow. "Operations and maintenance workers will be dispatched throughout the CTA system during the night and into the morning to help ensure buses and trains are operating, and to address any potential impacts that the forecasted snow could have on service," a CTA spokesperson said in an email.
