Show Notes
This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 350.
Song title: Brass Lights in the Blind Spot
Original Base by Base episode: 350: OPA1 A8S in Rhesus Macaques Models Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy
Article metadata:
Article title: Rhesus macaques with an OPA1 mutation demonstrate features of autosomal dominant optic atrophy
Journal: PNAS
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2509165123
Reference: Jaggers TN et al., Rhesus macaques with an OPA1 mutation demonstrate features of autosomal dominant optic atrophy. PNAS. 2026;123:e2509165123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2509165123
Lyrics:
Verse 1
Under bright screens in a midnight lab
A single letter turns the map to gray
Quiet wires from the eye to the brain
Start losing spark along the way
Pre-Chorus
In the smallest shift, a signal bends
Power slips where it should stay
But we can trace the break in the line
And name what fades
Chorus
Oh, bring the brass lights back to the nerve
Let the rhythm carry what it’s worth
When the engines stutter, we learn the tune
And we’ll build them stronger soon
So raise that beat for the cells that serve
We’re not done—bring the brass lights back to the nerve
Verse 2
In the fovea’s focus, a fragile thread
Ganglion voices thin and dim
Mitochondria miss the road they knew
Crowd less, twist strange, run thin
Bridge
If dynamics fail, the cables fray
Axon, myelin, torn by time
But this mirror in living eyes
Gives us a trial run before the climb
We’ll aim protection where the power goes
And rewrite the fault in the code
Final Chorus
Oh, bring the brass lights back to the nerve
Let the rhythm carry what it’s worth
We saw the loss, we saw the proof
Now we chase the rescue route
So raise that beat for the cells that serve
We’re not done—bring the brass lights back to the nerve
