Show Notes
This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 458.
Song title: Half Means Home
Original Base by Base episode: 458: Somatic or inherited? Reading TP53 risk from shared DNA
Article metadata:
Article title: Shared inheritance reveals landscape of somatic and germline cancer risk in TP53
Journal: The American Journal of Human Genetics
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.07.011
Reference: MacGregor, H.A.J., Blundell, J.R., and Easton, D.F. (2026). Shared inheritance reveals landscape of somatic and germline cancer risk in TP53. The American Journal of Human Genetics 113, 1916-1928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.07.011
Lyrics:
Verse 1
Blood draw, letter back.
Same word my family feared.
Four hundred sixty-nine thousand read
and the line I thought I had disappeared.
Pre-Chorus
Don't read the name.
Read how much of me it is.
Half of every cell is one thing.
A rising sliver is another business.
Chorus
HALF MEANS HOME — it came down the line.
LESS MEANS MINE — I grew it on my own time.
HALF MEANS HOME. LESS MEANS MINE.
Same letters on the page,
different sign.
Verse 2
Fifty-five of them turned up.
Only six were passed down.
The rest climbed with the birthdays —
two point three a decade, going up, never down.
Pre-Chorus
The six that ran in blood of kin
sat soft, sat partial, sat halfway in.
The loud ones, the famous ones,
nobody handed me those. I made them.
Chorus
HALF MEANS HOME — it came down the line.
LESS MEANS MINE — I grew it on my own time.
HALF MEANS HOME. LESS MEANS MINE.
Same letters on the page,
different sign.
Bridge
Not the bone. Not the breast.
It's the marrow keeping score.
Sixteen times the blood.
That old name don't live here anymore.
Shared the segment, shared the street —
that's how we told them apart.
Not the spelling. The inheritance.
Not the letter. The start.
Outro
Half means home.
Less means mine.
Count the fraction.
Read the line.
Half means home.
Less means mine.
