a small, circular culture dish with a tight-fitting lid, made of glass or plastic. It is used for collecting cells or specimens and maintaining a sterile environment during an experiment.
- Each biology student will need a petri dish for the experiment.
- The biologist observed the micro-organisms in the petri dish to see if there were any changes.
Origin: Julius R Petri (1852-1921) was a German bacteriologist who developed the petri dish in order to create a sterile environment for his experiments. Petri worked with Robert Koch, the Nobel prize winner who specialized in the study of tuberculosis.
Contributor: Tara Benwell