Silk gets stronger when supercooled whilst other materials get weak and brittle. The discovery was made by a group of scientists shooting bullets at various supercooled items and filming them shatter. When they tried it on a spider web it didn’t work: the web just caught the bullet. At the time it was just an interesting curiosity, but plainly it has enormous practical significance. By studying how the spider makes its silk we can learn how to make polymers (plastics) that don’t get brittle in the deep freezer, or in outer space, or in the Arctic. Moreover, natural silk can itself be used to manufacture objects for use in extreme conditions. The half-million tonnes already produced annually is almost certain to increase dramatically.