This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 462.

Song title: Along the Vessels
Original Base by Base episode: 462: A vessel gene tied to AMD dims low-light vision in mice

Article metadata:
Article title: Genetic evidence and cross-species functional characterization implicate CNN2 in age-related macular degeneration susceptibility
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2533682123
Reference: Cheng, F.-F., Mou, H., Liu, Z., Zhang, C.-J., Zhuang, Y.-Y., Wu, Z., Wen, X.-R., Xue, A., Zhang, X., Yang, J., and Jin, Z.-B. (2026). Genetic evidence and cross-species functional characterization implicate CNN2 in age-related macular degeneration susceptibility. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123(36), e2533682123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2533682123

Lyrics:
Verse 1
They traced the dimming of the aging eye to sixty-three old doors,
But behind so many of those doors the culprit was unsure,
They matched the blood against the risk and whittled it to nine,
And four held true inside the eye, like lanterns down the line.

Pre-Chorus
They brought the four to little fish and quieted each one,
And two of them left smaller eyes that turned away from sun,
Then they gave the message back again, and most of it was won.

Chorus
It's a gene that lives along the vessels, not within the light,
But take it from the mouse and watch the dusk slip out of sight,
The faint grey lines run into one, the finer shadings fade,
Though bold black stripes still find the eye, and daylight isn't frayed.

Verse 2
By three months and by five, the layer that catches light grew thin,
The cones grew sparse, the signals dropped, as something wore within,
Yet the gene was hardly in those cells; it kept the vessel walls,
The quiet keepers of the blood that run behind the halls.

Bridge
Now did it starve the light from back, or strike those cells alone?
The mice can't say, the fish can't say, the answer isn't known,
And neither has the center spot where human sight is sown,
So they call it a suspect now, not a verdict set in stone.

Final Chorus
It's a gene that lives along the vessels, not within the light,
But take it from the mouse and watch the dusk slip out of sight,
The faint grey lines run into one, the finer shadings fade,
And in the aging eye, they ask, if that is how dusk is made.

• (00:00:10) - Tracing Age-Related Vision Loss to Genetic Suspects
• (00:00:35) - Testing the Gene in Zebrafish
• (00:00:56) - The Vessel Gene and Vision Decline in Mice
• (00:01:32) - Retinal Thinning and the Blood Vessel Connection
• (00:01:57) - Unanswered Questions: Starvation or Damage?
• (00:02:44) - Recap and Implications for Human Sight

This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 460.

Song title: Same Dial
Original Base by Base episode: 460: The lupus variant that also sharpens antiviral defense

Article metadata:
Article title: A highly prevalent lupus risk haplotype increases IRF7-dependent induction of IFN-α, enhancing antiviral defense and exacerbating autoimmunity
Journal: The American Journal of Human Genetics
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.08.016
Reference: Virolainen, S.J., Creighton, K., Dashtiahangar, M., et al., Waggoner, S.N., Weirauch, M.T., and Kottyan, L.C. (2026). A highly prevalent lupus risk haplotype increases IRF7-dependent induction of IFN-α, enhancing antiviral defense and exacerbating autoimmunity. The American Journal of Human Genetics 113, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.08.016

Lyrics:
Verse 1
Two letters in a single gene.
Most of the world is carrying them.
Not the rare thing. The common thing.

Mantra
Turn it up.
The virus falls.
Turn it up.
The body turns.

Verse 2
Into the nucleus faster.
Onto the DNA tighter.
More interferon out the other side.

Mantra
Same dial.
Both ways.
Same dial.
Both ways.

Verse 3
In the mouse lung, less virus by morning.
In the same mouse, antibodies against its own DNA.
Nobody got to choose one without the other.

Bridge
Older than the plagues we wrote down.
Already common before the counting started.
It was never waiting to become useful.
It already was.

Mantra
Turn it up.
The virus falls.
Turn it up.
The body turns.

Outro
One point one eight.
A small risk, carried by almost everyone.
Same dial.
Both ways.
Same dial.

This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 461.

Song title: Dimmer Underneath
Original Base by Base episode: 461: Adult Ank3 loss quiets neurons and lowers a myelin protein

Article metadata:
Article title: Ank3 loss in adult forebrain excitatory neurons disrupts behavior, neuronal activity, membrane proteome, and myelination
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2606900123
Reference: Yoon, S., Dos Santos, M., Khalatyan, N., Savas, J.N., and Penzes, P. (2026). Ank3 loss in adult forebrain excitatory neurons disrupts behavior, neuronal activity, membrane proteome, and myelination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123(35), e2606900123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2606900123

Lyrics:
Verse 1
They pulled the scaffold from the inside of the wire,
Took out the rungs that held the current to the fire.
The rooms upstairs went quiet, one switch at a time,
Still lit, still humming, just below the line.

Pre-Chorus
Out on the street I'm moving faster than before,
Every door is open and I'm not afraid anymore,
But the signal in the walls is running thin.

Chorus
Running on the surface, dimmer underneath,
A city wide awake with a lower heat,
Turned down, not off, beneath the neon rain,
Running on the surface, dimmer in the frame.

Verse 2
The coil around the cable came in sparse and light,
On floors two, three and four, but five was wound up tight.
The wrap is spun by strangers in a different room,
And no one knows yet how the quiet reached them through the gloom.

Bridge
Then a pale salt glowing in a glass of rain
Laid one strip of silver back along the lane,
But the other pieces scattered on the floor
Stayed right where they landed, same as before.

Final Chorus
Running on the surface, dimmer underneath,
A city wide awake with a lower heat,
One seam mended in the neon rain,
Running on the surface, dimmer in the frame.

• (00:00:32) - Song and instrumental performance