Mathematicians work across an ever-expanding range of disciplines, from the physical and medical sciences to economics and the social sciences. These three short films display that diversity. Dominic Vella explains how mathematical modelling helps us to quantify what the act of poking is telling us; Helen Byrne explains how she uses mathematical techniques to gain insights in to a number of medical and biological systems, notably in tumour growth; while Derek Moulton's interest in mathematical mechanical biology has led him to try and understand the universal patterns that are seen in seashells. All demonstrate how mathematics is critical to modelling and understanding the material world.