Backbone Plain-language peptide science.
Newsletter

The explainer digest

One email, roughly every other week. One piece of peptide science, explained in plain language — and an honest note about anything we got wrong last time.

The digest is free and always has been. Each issue takes a single question — a molecule, a historical episode, a piece of regulation, a claim we keep seeing repeated — and works through it at the length it deserves, usually five or six minutes of reading.

What it isn't: a product newsletter. We don't sell anything, we don't run sponsorships from anyone selling compounds, and no issue will ever tell you to take something. When a topic reaches the point where the next question is a personal medical one, the issue stops and points you at your doctor.

Past issues

  • Issue 09 12 March 2026

    The insulin centennial, 100 years on

    What the Toronto extract actually was, why it took another three decades to know its structure, and what changed when human insulin started coming out of engineered bacteria in 1982.

  • Issue 08 26 February 2026

    How to read a clinical-trial abstract without a PhD

    Six fields do most of the work: phase, sample size, control arm, blinding, primary endpoint, and who registered it. A field guide to spotting what an abstract is quietly not telling you.

  • Issue 07 12 February 2026

    Why "peptide" and "protein" are the same chemistry

    The ~50-residue boundary is a convention of usage, not a property of matter. Where the habit came from, why insulin sits awkwardly on the line, and what the distinction is really gesturing at.

  • Issue 06 29 January 2026

    What the FDA approval pathway actually checks

    Preclinical work, three phases of human trials, and review. What each stage is designed to catch — and why "investigational" means the process hasn't finished, not that it was skipped for being unnecessary.

The full archive is being rebuilt and isn't browsable yet. In the meantime, everything is on the library page, and you can ask us for a back issue at hello@readbackbone.org.