Scientist-novelist back with second book at cell biology meeting

It's about living in two worlds times two, says Steve Caplan, the Israeli-born but American-now, scientist-novelist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Caplan who has just published his second novel. "Welcome Home, Sir," about the divisions that science and national identity create in his scientist-novelist, Israeli-American hero.

Published by the Anaphora Literary Press of Cochran Georgia, "Welcome Home, Sir" is the story of Dr. Ethan Meyer, a dynamic, highly successful biochemical researcher at a large American university whose life is coming apart at the seams. The cracks come from tensions between science and ordinary life, between being an Israeli and raising American children, and most dramatically between Dr. Meyer's daily life and his haunting memories from combat service in the Israel Defense Forces.

"I think there may be more Israeli scientists today in the US than in Israel," says writer Caplan, "and it sets up a peculiar dynamic between these scientists and their families here in America."

Caplan was in Denver to present new data on cellular endocytic trafficking at the American Society for Cell Biology's 51st Annual Meeting and to talk about his second novel. He published his first novel, "Matter Over Mind," in 2010. It is extremely realistic portrait of a fictional biomedical researcher struggling with grant troubles, eccentric lab members, and troublesome colleagues, while personal problems pile up.