INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR BIOSEMIOTIC STUDIES
Welcome to the website of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies.
Biosemiotics
Biosemiotics is an interdisciplinary research agenda investigating the myriad forms of communication and signification found in and between living systems. It is thus the study of representation, meaning, sense, and the biological significance of codes and sign processes, from genetic code sequences to intercellular signaling processes to animal display behavior to human semiotic artifacts such as language and abstract symbolic thought.
Recent updates
Recent articles from Biosemiotics
On the Origin of Information in Biology —
October 22, 2025
Correction: Simple Utterances but Complex Understanding? Meta-studying the Fuzzy Mismatch between Animal Semantic Capacities in Varied Contexts
October 15, 2025
“The Holobiont as a Biosemiotic System: Health and Dysbiosis Signals in the Human Gut Microbiome”
October 13, 2025
The human holobiont, a host and its symbiotic microbiota, constitutes …
Human-Animal Adoption: Bioethical Challenges and Considerations
October 13, 2025
Nowadays, talking about animal adoption requires addressing several …
“Time and Meaning: On the Role of Biological Rhythms in the Origins of Semiosis”
September 9, 2025
Latest Blog Posts
New website!
We have updated our website! We expect this website to be faster and easier to access. Please make sure to give it a visit and in case you find any issues, please do let us know by writing to webmaster at biosemiotics.org!
Read MoreRegistration to Gatherings 2025 open
Please fill in the form here to register for the 2025 Gatherings in Biosemiotics.
Read MoreThe 25th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics (GIBS)
In Rotterdam, The Netherlands
25-29 August, 2025
The Gatherings in Biosemiotics is the annual meeting of world scholars studying sign processes in living systems. Since 2001, these meetings have taken place, and they also serve as the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS).
Read MoreCFP for session on Biosemiotics at ISHPSSB 2025
David Suárez Pascal shares the following: The 2025 Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), will take place on July 20–25, 2025 in Porto, Portugal; and I am organizing a session titled “Is life signs? Historical, philosophical, and sociological approaches to biosemiotics” for this meeting with the following description:
Read MoreBiosemiotics Achievement Award 2023
The selection panel of the Biosemiotics Achievement Award 2023 has decided on the meeting on 29 May 2024, after careful evaluation of the research papers published in Biosemiotics in 2023, to give the award to
Read More
Recent articles from Biosemiotics
On the Origin of Information in Biology —
October 22, 2025
Correction: Simple Utterances but Complex Understanding? Meta-studying the Fuzzy Mismatch between Animal Semantic Capacities in Varied Contexts
October 15, 2025
“The Holobiont as a Biosemiotic System: Health and Dysbiosis Signals in the Human Gut Microbiome”
October 13, 2025
The human holobiont, a host and its symbiotic microbiota, constitutes …
Human-Animal Adoption: Bioethical Challenges and Considerations
October 13, 2025
Nowadays, talking about animal adoption requires addressing several …
“Time and Meaning: On the Role of Biological Rhythms in the Origins of Semiosis”
September 9, 2025
Latest Blog Posts
New website!
We have updated our website! We expect this website to be faster and easier to access. Please make sure to give it a visit and in case you find any issues, please do let us know by writing to webmaster at biosemiotics.org!
Read MoreRegistration to Gatherings 2025 open
Please fill in the form here to register for the 2025 Gatherings in Biosemiotics.
Read MoreThe 25th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics (GIBS)
In Rotterdam, The Netherlands 25-29 August, 2025 The Gatherings in Biosemiotics is the annual meeting of world scholars studying sign processes in living systems. Since 2001, these meetings have taken place, and they also serve as the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS).
Read MoreCFP for session on Biosemiotics at ISHPSSB 2025
David Suárez Pascal shares the following: The 2025 Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), will take place on July 20–25, 2025 in Porto, Portugal; and I am organizing a session titled “Is life signs? Historical, philosophical, and sociological approaches to biosemiotics” for this meeting with the following description:
Read MoreBiosemiotics Achievement Award 2023
The selection panel of the Biosemiotics Achievement Award 2023 has decided on the meeting on 29 May 2024, after careful evaluation of the research papers published in Biosemiotics in 2023, to give the award to
Read MoreBiosemiotics and its masters
Biosemiotics is a collective endeavor built upon the works of those who have cleared a path for us.
To be alive is to be semiotically active.
Thomas A. Sebeok
Linguist
The action of signs follows upon the being of signs.
John Deely
Philosopher
The most pronounced feature of organic evolution is […] ‘semiotic freedom,’ that is to say the increase in richness or ‘depth’ of meaning that can be communicated
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Biologist
Living systems do not react in a mechanical way to mechanical inputs; rather, they transform inputs of the environment on their receptors into signs which inform the systems about the meaning of the environment for its needs.
Thure von Uexküll
Biologist