Biosemiotics is a growing field that studies the production, action, and interpretation of signs (such as sounds, objects, smells, movements, but also signs on molecular scales normally not perceived by an organism) in the physical and biologic realm in an attempt to integrate the findings of biology and semiotics (the study of signs and symbols). One goal of biosemiotics is to form a new view of life and meaning as immanent features of the natural world.

Early pioneers of biosemiotics include Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914), Charles Morris (1901-1979), Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944), Heini Hediger (1908-1992), Giorgio Prodi (1928-1987), Thomas A. Sebeok (1920-2001), and Thure von Uexküll (b.1908). Contemporary scholars include the biologists Jesper Hoffmeyer (b.1942), Kalevi Kull (b.1952), Alexei Sharov (b. 1954), and semioticians Floyd Merrell (b.1937), John Deely (b. 1942), Winfried Nöth (b. 1944), and Lucia Santaella...