In 1982 the first example of a rapidly blinking neutron star, or 'millisecond' pulsar, was found with the mighty 300-metre Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Since then more than 90 millisecond pulsars have been found and the well-established `recycling scenario' has been proposed for the acceleration process: When the pulsing neutron stars get old, the companion low-mass star ages gracefully and expands as it becomes a red giant. At some point it overflows its gravitational confines and the pulsar starts to accrete parts of its gas thereby spinning it up to breakneck speed over the next tens of millions of years. A millisecond neutron star is born.