Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Life

Biosemiotics: Searching for meanings in a meadow

By Liz Else

18 August 2010

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

In your own world, enwrapped in myriad others

(Image: WestEnd61/Rex Features)

Are signs and meanings just as vital to living things as enzymes and tissues? Liz Else investigates a science in the making

EVERY so often, something shows up on the Âé¶¹´«Ã½ radar that we just can’t identify easily. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a brand new type of flying machine that we are going to have to study closely?

That was our reaction when we first heard about a small conference held in June at the philosophy department of the Portuguese Catholic University…

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