This text examines the place of biological knowledge within the framework of science as a whole and addresses issues focused on the specific nature of biology, how biology is studied, and how biological knowledge is translated into applications, in particular, with regard to medicine. The book opens with a general discussion of the development of human understanding of scientific knowledge and method. The book gets specific focusing on knowledge of the cell, the basic unit of life. The salient point is the analogy between a systems-based analysis of factory regulation and the regulation of the cell. The book also includes information on translational science.