What is a Petri Dish?
A petri dish is a type of glass or plastic shallow round dish with a close fitting lid which is a vital tool in scientific laboratories. The uses for the petri dish are varied, but it is most well known for holding a culture medium upon which cells, bacteria, and viruses can be grown and studied. Most major scientific breakthroughs have been greatly assisted by the use of petri dishes whether they involve the structure of a virus or the ability to clone meat. The invention is named for Julius Richard Petri, who conceived of the idea in 1877, frustrated with existing tools for cultures. Most scientists used shallow bowls or bottles, which were awkward to work with and subject to contamination. Petri thought that a shallow circular dish would be easier to work with, and easy to make a lid for. The lid keeps the petri dish from being contaminated, and the basic shape makes them easy to stack and arrange in varied configurations. When a petri dish is used to culture cells, it is usually fi
Hi, Here is a good description from Wikipedis: A Petri dish is a shallow glass or plastic cylindrical dish that biologists use to culture cells, which can be bacteria, animal, plant, or fungus. It was named after the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921) who invented it in 1877 when working as an assistant to Robert Koch. Glass Petri dishes can be re-used by dry heating in a hot air oven at 160 degrees for one hour,
