Today, Google is honoring Julius Richard Petri with an animated Google Doodle.
Go to google.com and click the play button. You will see a gloved hand streaking each plate, the colonies appear, and then if you hover your mouse over the plate, you will find out just where that culture was obtained! From dirty socks to the kitchen sponge.
Julius Petri was a military doctor born in 1852. He was a prolific writer–almost 150 papers published–and microbiologist. He worked under Robert Koch, who is recognized as the father of bacteriology. He created Petri dishes to provide an environment where samples could be cultured in agar-based nutrient media without contamination from outside sources. He also helped devise improved techniques for cloning bacterial colonies using agar cultures. Techniques which every biology student at McMurry learns today!
So happy 161st birthday to Julius Petri, a man who advanced science!

