Conjugates of the phthalimide chromophore and carboxylic acid moieties are known to release CO2 upon photo-excitation. The process is utilized in synthetic organic photochemistry. For one such conjugate, phthaloylglycine (PG), the CO2 release was expected to be fast occurring within picoseconds. In a joint effort with groups from Frankfurt (Wachtveitl and Bredenbeck), we could show that it occurs within microseconds. Thus, PG is a snail, not a cheetah. Read more on this in our recent publication in Chemical Science.