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Petri dish

 
Petri Dish

 
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Petri dish
 
 
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A Petri dish is a shallow glass
Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
 or plastic
Plastic

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic chemistry solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products....
 cylindrical lidded dish that biologist
Microbiologist

A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Most have a university degree in the subject.Specialists in the broad field of microbiology include:...
s use to culture
Microbiological culture

A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture media under controlled laboratory conditions....
 cell
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
s. It was named after German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri
Julius Richard Petri

Julius Richard Petri was a Germany Microbiology who is generally credited with inventing the Petri dish while working as assistant to Robert Koch....
, who invented it when working as an assistant to Robert Koch
Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
. Glass Petri dishes can be re-used by sterilization
Sterilization (microbiology)

Sterilization refers to any process that effectively kills or eliminates transmissible agents from a surface, equipment, article of food or medication, or biological culture medium....
 (for example, dry heating in a hot air oven at 160 °C for one hour); plastic Petri dishes must be disposed of after one use.

For microbiology
Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryote such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes, which are bacteria and archaea....
, agar plate
Agar plate

An agar plate is a sterile Petri dish that contains a growth medium used to Microbiological culture microorganisms or small plants like the moss Physcomitrella patens....
s are very frequently used.






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Szalka Petriego
A Petri dish is a shallow glass
Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
 or plastic
Plastic

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic chemistry solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products....
 cylindrical lidded dish that biologist
Microbiologist

A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Most have a university degree in the subject.Specialists in the broad field of microbiology include:...
s use to culture
Microbiological culture

A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture media under controlled laboratory conditions....
 cell
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
s. It was named after German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri
Julius Richard Petri

Julius Richard Petri was a Germany Microbiology who is generally credited with inventing the Petri dish while working as assistant to Robert Koch....
, who invented it when working as an assistant to Robert Koch
Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
. Glass Petri dishes can be re-used by sterilization
Sterilization (microbiology)

Sterilization refers to any process that effectively kills or eliminates transmissible agents from a surface, equipment, article of food or medication, or biological culture medium....
 (for example, dry heating in a hot air oven at 160 °C for one hour); plastic Petri dishes must be disposed of after one use.

For microbiology
Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryote such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes, which are bacteria and archaea....
, agar plate
Agar plate

An agar plate is a sterile Petri dish that contains a growth medium used to Microbiological culture microorganisms or small plants like the moss Physcomitrella patens....
s are very frequently used. The dish is partially filled with warm liquid agar
Agar

Agar or agar agar is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. Historically and in a modern context, it is chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Japan, but in the past century has found extensive use as a solid substrate to contain Growth medium for microbiology work....
 along with a particular mix of nutrients, salts and amino acid
Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
s and, optionally, antibiotic
Antibiotic

In common usage, an antibiotic is a substance or compound that kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics belong to the group of antimicrobial compounds used to treat infections caused by microorganisms, including fungus and protozoa....
s. After the agar solidifies, the dish is ready to receive a microbe-laden sample.

Other Petri dish uses do not involve agar; for instance, cell culture
Cell culture

Cell culture is the process by which prokaryote or eukaryote cells are grown under controlled conditions. In practice the term "cell culture" has come to refer to the culturing of cells derived from multicellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells....
.

Modern Petri dishes often have rings on the lids and bases which allow them to be stacked so that they do not slide off one another. Multiple dishes can also be incorporated into one plastic container to create what is called a "multi-well plate".

As well as making agar plate
Agar plate

An agar plate is a sterile Petri dish that contains a growth medium used to Microbiological culture microorganisms or small plants like the moss Physcomitrella patens....
s, empty Petri dishes may be used to observe plant germination or small animal behaviour, or for other day-to-day laboratory practices such as drying fluids in an oven and carrying and storing samples.