The genetic code is the universal language of life. It describes how information is encoded in the genetic material and is the same for all organisms from simple bacteria to animals to humans.  All information about living organisms is stored in their genes. Genes, for example, encode our height, eye color or predisposition for different diseases. For the cell to be able to read the information contained in genes, each of them is first carbon-copied into a so-called messenger RNA (mRNA), whose content is then translated to make proteins, biology's workhorses.