The Petri dish was named after its inventor, Julius Richard Petri, who was a very famous bacteriologist. Although the Petri dish was originally made out of glass so that it could be reused for experiments after sterilization, these days there are plastic petri dishes also presented as disposable Petri dishes. The latest development in petri dishes is 3D Petri dishes and Petri dishes that have metal rings beneath them. The Petri dishes with metal rings allow for the Petri dishes to be stored away, one on top of the other without them slipping and falling off.

For years they have been used across the world by all important scientists and have been part of all the escala sring quartet playing live musicimportant biological experiments. While ordering for vital lab supplies, a Petri dish would be critical because of its wide usage. Petri dishes are usually used to culture cells in it. These are round and shallow in shape and are made out of glass. Petri dishes are flat bottomed. When cell culture is done in these Petri dishes, a culture medium is used. This culture medium is known as agar. Agar is a gel like material which is made out of red algae and different types of nutrients.

Apart from being used as biological lab equipment, a Petri dish is also used in school and college laboratories to teach children about various biological concepts. A Petri dish is transparent laboratory equipment. This allows younger children to learn and see growth that happens when they want to see how a seed develops into a little plant.

While school labs do not have to be so cognizant about the quality of Petri dishes that they order for their school lab while ordering laboratory supplies whereas the quality of Petri dishes becomes very critical for larger scientific laboratories as they would need to be stored and reused over and over again, in case of cross contamination happening. Specialized biological labs, while ordering for science equipment, should only order for the best quality Petri dishes available.