About Petri Dishes

Petri dishes are a great tool for microbiologists. A Petri dish is a small self-contained laboratory for growing bacteria, isolated from contamination, and providing a nutrient-rich, climate-controlled environment. Familiar bacteria like E. coli grow amazingly well in a Petri dish. A lot of bacteria species do, but those that grow well in a Petri dish are only a drop in the bucket considering how many species of bacteria we have, and there are many more we haven't discovered yet. So why can't we design a Petri dish for those other bacteria we want to study? Lizah van der Aart explains why growing other bacterias is so confounding in this video from Minute Earth. You can tell van der Aart is a microbiologist because she pronounces minute as my-noot, which only makes sense. Or maybe it's because she's Dutch. This video is only four minutes; the rest is promotional.