This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 390.

Song title: Mutual Destruction
Original Base by Base episode: 390: Daunorubicin, Mutual Destruction, and Layered Antiphage Defense

Article metadata:
Article title: DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity
Journal: PNAS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2602073123
Reference: Gätgens C., Rackow B., Ernst L., et al. DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity. PNAS. 2026;123(23):e2602073123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2602073123

Lyrics:
Verse 1
Bright screens, late shifts, a silent plate
A shadow lands on my cell gate
I feel the first code cross the line
Then everything jams in the spine
Ink in the helix, drawn too tight

Pre-Chorus
It slips between the letters, locks the page
Turns the next step into a cage
Only the first lines get to breathe
A pre-early whisper under teeth
And I can’t run, but I won’t leave

Chorus
Mutual destruction, that’s the deal
If you take my life, you lose your wheel
No copies made, no future spun
Your pre-early sparks burn out the sun
I fall to stop the phage from having one

Verse 2
Some invaders shrug, some break and stall
Taxa roulette in the lab hall
A heatmap says who bleeds, who bends
But this one hits where sequence ends
A poison pen that shifts the odds

Bridge
Layer on layer, defenses talk
Restriction cuts when doors unlock
Together we turn the tide to “stay”
Not every cell will see that day
But populations learn to live that way

Final Chorus
Mutual destruction, hear it ring
A sacrificial circuit closing in
First-step taken, but the story’s done
No replication, no kingdom won
We break the chain so the many can run