Organic chemistry: solid awakening.

: C O d Indeed, its very existence also has implications for tackling much broader questions about how intracellular parasites evolved from algae, and whether the single origin of these plastids can be pushed even farther back in time to explain the origin of an even greater diversity of complex algae with red algal plastids, as proposed by the ‘chromalveolate hypothesis’. The discovery of an organism that falls at such an interesting junction in the tree of life happens only rarely, and this little brown ball will surely become the subject of a complete genome analysis soon after the ink of this commentary has dried. When it does, its genome will be a source of clues to many events that defined ancient evolutionary history. ■ Patrick J. Keeling is at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Botany Department, University of British Columbia, 3529–6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada. e-mail: [email protected]