Winter cometh

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Steve Caplan

Winter cometh to our lilac bush, recently

The problem with being a scientist, and a cell biologist as such, is that everything reminds me of cellular organelles. These icicles remind me of the membrane bound tubules involved in endocytic recycling…

About Steve Caplan

I am a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska where I mentor a group of students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers working on endocytic protein trafficking. My first lablit novel, "Matter Over Mind," is about a biomedical researcher seeking tenure and struggling to overcome the consequences of growing up with a parent suffering from bipolar disorder. Lablit novel #2, "Welcome Home, Sir," published by Anaphora Literary Press, deals with a hypochondriac principal investigator whose service in the army and post-traumatic stress disorder actually prepare him well for academic, but not personal success. Novel #3, "A Degree of Betrayal," is an academic murder mystery. "Saving One" is my most recent novel set at the National Institutes of Health. Now IN PRESS: Today's Curiosity is Tomorrow's Cure: The Case for Basic Biomedical Research (CRC PRESS, 2021). https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B006CSULBW? All views expressed are my own, of course--after all, I hate advertising.
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11 Responses to Winter cometh

  1. ricardipus says:
    December 10, 2011 at 21:54

    Pretty photo, Steve.

    We’ve been getting snow flurries and sub-freezing temperatures here in southern Ontario now, too. Just the first licks of winter. I imagine that come February, winter in Nebraska will be a lot more severe than it is here.

    • Steve Caplan says:
      December 12, 2011 at 10:23

      Actually, I think your winters out-do ours. We usually only have 3-4 dumps per year, and often it melts pretty quickly. Sometimes in mid-Jan. I will see ice-fishers out on the lakes and think that they are CRAZY because we can get days of 50 deg F or 10+ C for a few days in a row.

      • ricardipus says:
        December 12, 2011 at 15:18

        I may have to move to Nebraska, then.

        Where is it, exactly?

        • Steve Caplan says:
          December 12, 2011 at 15:22

          Just hit the road heading southwest. When you see a cornfield of 1000 km X 850 km, you’ll know you arrived.

          • Cath@VWXYNot? says:
            December 14, 2011 at 16:43

            My postdoc supervisor was from Nebraska, and likes to say that she escaped to Toronto and then Vancouver as soon as she possibly could. Her “Ski Nebraska!” poster – featuring a man standing still on skis in the middle of a massive flat featureless (non-snowy) cornfield – was the only decorative item that survived the lab’s move to a new building in 2005…

  2. bean-mom says:
    December 12, 2011 at 10:25

    I totally see it.

  3. Steve Caplan says:
    December 12, 2011 at 11:05

    Do you also work on membrane tubules?:)

  4. bean-mom says:
    December 13, 2011 at 20:29

    Nope. But I do consider myself a cell biologist. I do immunostaining every now and then and look at pretty organelles and structures =)

    • Steve Caplan says:
      December 14, 2011 at 07:02

      I believe that it’s in 2009, but CELL had a cover that I like to use when teaching showing an artistic and appetizing plate with the food organized into individual organelles. If you can’t find it, let me know and I’ll see if I can put it up here.

  5. Steve Caplan says:
    December 14, 2011 at 17:00

    @Cath

    If you think Nebraska is something, you should see Winnipeg! Have you seen the postcards from Wpg? Completely blank (white) and written on it: “Winnipeg in the winter…”

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