If our body temperature increases by even 1°C, we fell pretty sick, but Echinolittorina malaccana periwinkles routinely experience and survive temperatures in excess of 55°C. It turns out that the thermotolerant molluscs reinforce the core of proteins such as malate dehydrogenase, to prevent them from unraveling at high temperature, while increasing the flexibility of regions that are essential for the protein’s mechanism to ensure that the protein remains functional at high and low temperatures.