Studies of synaptic vesicle recycling usually involve non-physiological or high-frequency stimulation of synapses in vitro. To obtain a more physiological measure of this process, Watanabe et al. used an optogenetic approach to stimulate, with a single light pulse, neuromuscular junctions in living worms and froze the worms immediately afterwards. Subsequent electron microscopy analysis revealed that vesicle endocytosis occurs both at the centre of the synapse and at adherens junctions and is much faster than current models of synaptic vesicle recycling — clathrin-mediated endocytosis and the 'kiss and run' mechanism — suggest.