The application to biological systems of the theory of encoding effects on signal transmission and communications efficiency. In everyday language, information is associated with knowledge, meaning (semantics), and the influence of information on behavior (pragmatics). Information theory considers information to be quantitative and capable of being expressed in binary digits, or bits. The measure of information is based on its structure or its representation, taking into account the statistical properties of its structure. Mathematical information theory was created to describe the transmission of information in telecommunications, but it has been widely applied also in mathematics, physics, and biology.