Scientists at the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, together with collaborators from the University of Groningen, the University of Twente and the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy in Italy, have been able to follow the entire sequence of structural transformations in a new class of molecular switches for the first time. By identifying ‘control knobs’ to direct their operation, better control of their performance is now possible. The results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on 8 May.