The Misrepresentation of Petri Dish, as “petri” Dish, in the Scientific Literature

Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva

Titles

Abstract

The Petri dish is, without a doubt, a very basic, yet important and popular tool in microbiological and other biomedical experiments. It serves primarily as a support or structural platform for placing, growing or testing biological specimens, whether these be microbiological, animal, plant or human.

Given its size, usually about 10 cm in diameter, the Petri dish is an ideal platform for cellular and tissue cultures.

Despite the commonality of Petri dishes, quite surprisingly, there is a pervasive error throughout the biomedical literature, namely its misspelling as “petri” dish. This is not a trivial issue since this dish is named after a scientist, Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), so the upper-case “P” should not be represented as a lower-case “p”.

It is important to alert students and seasoned biomedical researchers, as well as the wider public, who might use this term, about the need to use the term Petri accurately, in order to respect its historical foundation.

To garner some appreciation of the extent of this error in the biomedical literature, a 2022 search on PubMed for either “Petri dish” or “petri dish” revealed 50 search results, 24 (or 48%) of which were of the latter, erroneous form in titles or abstracts. This suggests that the indicated error, which is in need of correction, may be widely pervasive in the biomedical literature.

The Petri dish is, without a doubt, a very basic, yet important and popular tool in microbiological and other biomedical experiments. It serves primarily as a support or structural platform for placing, growing or testing biological specimens, whether these be microbiological, animal, plant or human.

Given its size, usually about 10 cm in diameter, the Petri dish is an ideal platform for cellular and tissue cultures.

Despite the commonality of Petri dishes, quite surprisingly, there is a pervasive error throughout the biomedical literature, namely its misspelling as “petri” dish. This is not a trivial issue since this dish is named after a scientist, Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), so the upper-case “P” should not be represented as a lower-case “p”.

It is important to alert students and seasoned biomedical researchers, as well as the wider public, who might use this term, about the need to use the term Petri accurately, in order to respect its historical foundation.

To garner some appreciation of the extent of this error in the biomedical literature, a 2022 search on PubMed for either “Petri dish” or “petri dish” revealed 50 search results, 24 (or 48%) of which were of the latter, erroneous form in titles or abstracts. This suggests that the indicated error, which is in need of correction, may be widely pervasive in the biomedical literature.

Keywords

Petri dish, “petri” dish, basic and applied biology, cell, tissue and organ culture, microbiology, synthetic meat

References

Abers, Mareshah; Schroeder, Sydney; Goelz, Linna; Sulser, Adrienne; St. Rose, Tiffany; Puchalski, Keely; Langland, Jeffrey 2021: Antimicrobial activity of the volatile substances from essential oils. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 21(1), Art. No. 124. DOI: 10.1186/s12906-021-03285-3.

Alomar, Samer; Mireei, Seyed Ahmad; Hemmat, Abbas; Masoumi, Amin Allah; Khademi, Hossein 2022: Prediction and variability mapping of some physicochemical characteristics of calcareous topsoil in an arid region using Vis-SWNIR and NIR spectroscopy. Scientific Reports 12(1), Art. No. 8435. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-12276-4.

Amer, Medhat; GamalEl Din, Sameh Fayek; Zeidan, Ashraf; Adel, Ahmed; Elsisi, Islam; Fakhry, Emad; Sadek, Ahmed Raef 2022: Intrasurgical seminiferous tubular diameter correlates with total motile sperm count in azoospermia: A prospective cohort study. Reproductive Sciences 29(6), pp. 1836–1843. DOI: 10.1007/s43032-022-00927-w.

Baudry, Xavier; Doury, Géraldine; Couty, Aude; Fourdrain, Yvelise; van Havermaet, Robin; Lateur, Marc; Ameline, Arnoud 2021: Antagonist effects of the leek Allium porrum as a companion plant on aphid host plant colonization. Scientific Reports 11, Art. No. 4032. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83580-8.

Casado-García, Ángela; Chichón, Gabriela; Domínguez, César; García-Domínguez, Manuel; Heras, Jónathan; Inés, Adrián; López, Maria; Mata, Eloy; Pascual, Vico; Sáenz, Yolanda 2021: MotilityJ: An open-source tool for the classification and segmentation of bacteria on motility images. Computers in Biology and Medicine 136, Art. No. 104673. DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.104673.

El Kholy, Samar; Giesy, John P.; Al Naggar, Yahya 2021: Consequences of a short-term exposure to a sub lethal concentration of CdO nanoparticles on key life history traits in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Journal of Hazardous Materials 410, Art. No. 124671. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124671.

Feng, Jun; Chen, Bingcheng.; Sun, Weiwei; Wang, Yang 2021: Microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation study using Bacillus subtilis with application to self-healing concrete preparation and characterization. Construction and Building Materials 280, Art. No. 122460. DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122460.

Gangadhar, Dereddy; Babu, Paritala Venu; Pamanji, Rajesh; Srikanth, Kaigoora 2021: The pursuit of alachlor herbicide toxicity on Eisenia fetida and its biochemical responses. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 232, Art. No. 149. DOI: 10.1007/s11270-021-05109-z.

Grote, Mathias 2018: Petri dish versus Winogradsky column: A longue durée perspective on purity and diversity in microbiology, 1880s–1980s. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 40, Art. No. 11. DOI: 10.1007/s40656-017-0175-9.

Guo, Zhiguang; Sun, Chao; Wang, Juan; Cai, Zaisheng.; Ge, Fengyan 2021: High-performance laminated fabric with enhanced photothermal conversion and Joule heating effect for personal thermal management. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 13(7), pp. 8851–8862. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c23123.

Hotzy, Cosima; Fowler, Emily; Kiehl, Berrit; Francis, Roy; Mason, Janet; Moxon, Simon; Rostant, Wayne; Chapman, Tracey; Immler, Simone 2022: Evolutionary history of sexual selection affects microRNA profiles in Drosophila sperm. Evolution 76(2), pp. 310–319. DOI: 10.1111/evo.14411.

Huang, Li-Li; Xue, Fang-Sen; Chen, Chao; Guo, Xin; Tang, Jian-Jun; Zhong, Ling; He, Hai-Min 2021: Effects of temperature on life-history traits of the newly invasive fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda in Southeast China. Ecology and Evolution 11(10), pp. 5255–5264. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7413.

Hudson, Jamie; McQuaid, Christopher D.; Rius, Marc 2021: Contemporary climate change hinders hybrid performance of ecologically dominant marine invertebrates. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 34(1), pp. 60–72. DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13609.

Ibitoye, Olukayode Adebola; Olaniyi, Oladipo Oladiti; Ogidi, Clement Olusola; Akinyele, Bamidele Juliet 2021: Lactic acid bacteria bio-detoxified aflatoxins contaminated cereals, ameliorate toxicological effects and improve haemato-histological parameters in albino rats. Toxin Reviews 40(4), pp. 985–996. DOI: 10.1080/15569543.2020.1817088.

Jeong, Yeong Yeop.; Lee, Hung-Young; Kim, Suk Weon; Noh, Yoo-Sun; Seo, Pil Joon 2021: Optimization of protoplast regeneration in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Methods 17(1), Art. No. 21. DOI: 10.1186/s13007-021-00720-x.

Jimtha John, C.; Mallikarjunaswamy, G.E.; Najiya, Noushad 2021: Probiotic rhizospheric Bacillus sp. from Zingiber officinale Rosc. displays antifungal activity against soft rot pathogen Pythium sp. Current Plant Biology 27, Art. No. 100217. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpb.2021.100217.

Kaonga, Gerrard 2022: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘Peach Tree Dish’ Blunder Viewed Over 1M Times. URL: https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-peach-tree-dish-petri-mtg-bill-gates-fake-meat-georgia-1711261 (accessed on 6 April 2023).

Kim, Susjin; Gwon, Yonghyun; Park, Sunho; Kim, Woochan; Jeon, Yubin; Han, Taeseong; Jeong, Hoon Eui; Kim, Jangho 2021: Synergistic effects of gelatin and nanotopographical patterns on biomedical PCL patches for enhanced mechanical and adhesion properties. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials 114, Art. No. 104167. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2020.104167.

Kutter, Jasmin S.; de Meulder, Dennis; Bestebroer, Theo M.; Mulders, Ard; Fouchier, Ron A.M.; Herfst, Sander 2021: Comparison of three air samplers for the collection of four nebulized respiratory viruses – Collection of respiratory viruses from air. Indoor Air 31(6), pp. 1874–1885. DOI: 10.1111/ina.12875.

Liu, Zhuoqi; Khan, Muhammad Musa; Fajar, Anugerah; Chen, Shimin; Guo, Mujuan; Chen, Yueyin; Yang, Chunxiao; Wu, Jianhui; Qiu, Baoli; Zhou, Xuguo; Pan, Huipeng 2021: Toxicity of fluralaner against vegetable pests and its sublethal impact on a biocontrol predatory ladybeetle. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 225, Art. No. 112743. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112743.

Lloret, Javier; Pedrosa-Pamies, Rut; Vandal, Nicole; Rorty, Ruby; Ritchie, Miriam; McGuire, Claire; Chenoweth, Kelsey; Valiela, Ivan 2021: Salt marsh sediments act as sinks for microplastics and reveal effects of current and historical land use changes. Environmental Advances 4, Art. No. 100060. DOI: 10.1016/j.envadv.2021.100060.

McLaren, Meagan D.; Mathavarajah, Sabateeshan; Kim, William D.; Yap, Shyong Q.; Huber, Robert J. 2021: Aberrant autophagy impacts growth and multicellular development in a Dictyostelium knockout model of CLN5 disease. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 9, Art. No. 657406. DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.657406.

Medjigbodo, Adandé A.; Djogbénou, Luc S.; Djihinto, Oswald Y.; Akoton, Romaric B.; Abbey, Emmanuella; Kakossou, Rosaria M.; Sonounameto, Eric G.; Salavi, Esther; Djossou, Laurette; Badolo, Athanase 2021: Putative pleiotropic effects of the knockdown resistance (L1014F) allele on the life-history traits of Anopheles gambiae. Malaria Journal 20(1), Art. No. 480. DOI: 10.1186/s12936-021-04005-5.

Mohamed, Abeer A.; Salah, Mohsen M.; El-Dein, Manal M. Zen; EL-Hefny, Mervat; Ali, Hayssam M.; Farraj, Dunia A. Al; Hatamleh, Ashraf A.; Salem, Mohamed Z.M.; Ashmawy, Nader A. 2021: Ecofriendly bioagents, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, and Plectranthus neochilus extracts to control the early blight pathogen (Alternaria solani) in tomato. Agronomy 11, Art. No. 911. DOI: 10.3390/agronomy11050911.

Prasad, Renuka; Jung, Hwajin; Tan, Anderson; Song, Yonghee; Moon, Sungho; Shaker, Mohhamed R.; Sun, Woong; Lee, Junghee; Ryu, Hoon; Lim, Hyun Kook; Jho, Eek-Hoon 2021: Hypermethylation of Mest promoter causes aberrant Wnt signaling in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Scientific Reports 11(1), Art. No. 20075. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-99562-9.

Reigate, Claire; Williams, Heffin W.; Denwood, Matthew J.; Morphew, Russell M.; Thomas, Eurion R.; Brophy, Peter M. 2021: Evaluation of two Fasciola hepatica faecal egg counting protocols in sheep and cattle. Veterinary Parasitology 294, Art. No. 109435. DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2021.109435.

San, Phyu Phyu; Tuda, Midori; Takagi, Masami 2021: Impact of relative humidity and water availability on the life history of the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii. BioControl 66(4), pp. 497–510. DOI: 10.1007/s10526-021-10081-y.

Santos, Wagner L.; Pôrto, Katia C.; Pinheiro, Fabio 2022: Sex-specific differences in reproductive life-history traits of the moss Weissia jamaicensis. American Journal of Botany 109(4), pp. 645–654. DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1840.

Schneider, Stefan; Taylor, Graham W.; Kremer, Stefan C.; Burgess, Patrick; McGroarty, Jillian; Mitsui, Kyomi; Zhuang, Alex; de Waard, Jeremi R.; Fryxell, John M. 2022: Bulk arthropod abundance, biomass and diversity estimation using deep learning for computer vision. Methods in Ecology and Evolutio 13, pp. 346–357. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13769.

Serghi, Edward Umberto; Kokkoris, Vasilis; Cornell, Calvin; Dettman, Jeremy; Stefani, Franck; Corradi, Nicolas 2021: Homo- and dikaryons of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis differ in life history strategy. Frontiers in Plant Science 12, Art. No. 715377. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.715377.

Shama, Gilbert 2019: The “Petri” dish: A case of simultaneous invention in bacteriology. Endeavour 43(1–2), pp. 11–16. DOI: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2019.04.001.

Shepard, A.; McGregor, M. A.; Haag, W. R. 2021: Host fishes and life history of the round hickorynut (Obovaria subrotunda). Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation 24(1), pp. 18–25. DOI: 10.31931/fmbc-d-20-00010.

Singh, A.; Verma, V.; Kumar, M.; Kumar, A.; Sarma, D. K.; Singh, B.; Jha, R. 2022: Stem cells-derived in vitro meat: from petri [sic] dish to dinner plate. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 62(10), pp. 2641–2654. DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1856036.

Shu, Z-X.; Jia, W-Q.; Zhang, W.; Wang, P-P. 2021: Selected quality attributes of paddy rice as affected by storage temperature history. International Journal of Food Properties 24(1), pp. 316–324. DOI: 10.1080/10942912.2021.1879132.

Tang, J-D.; Yin, Q-F.; Shi, M-T.; Yang, M.; Yang, H.; Sun, B-N.; Guo, B-L.; Wang, T-J. 2021: Programmable shape transformation of 3D printed magnetic hydrogel composite for hyperthermia cancer therapy. Extreme Mechanics Letters 46, Art. No. 101305. DOI: 10.1016/j.eml.2021.101305.

Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A. 2016: An error is an error… is an erratum. The ethics of not correcting errors in the science literature. Publishing Research Quarterly 32(3), pp. 220–226. DOI: 10.1007/s12109-016-9469-0.

Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A. 2022: A synthesis of the formats for correcting erroneous and fraudulent academic literature, and associated challenges. Journal for General Philosophy of Science 53(4), pp. 583–599. DOI: 10.1007/s10838-022-09607-4.

Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A. 2023: Is the validity, credibility and reliability of literature indexed in PubMed at risk? Medical Journal Armed Forces India (in press). DOI: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2021.03.009.

Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A.; Nazarovets, Serhii 2022: Publication history: A double DOI-based method to store and/or monitor information about published and corrected academic literature. Journal of Scholarly Publishing 53(2), pp. 85–108. DOI: 10.3138/jsp-2017-0017.

Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A.; Vuong, Quan-Hoang 2021: Do legitimate publishers profit from error, misconduct or fraud? Exchanges 8(3), pp. 55–68. DOI: 10.31273/eirj.v8i3.785.

Terada, Ryuta; Nishihara, Gregory N.; Arimura, Kaname; Watanabe, Yuki; Mine, Takayuki; Morikawa, Tarou 2021: Photosynthetic response of a cultivated red alga, Neopyropia yezoensis f. narawaensis (=Pyropia yezoensis f. narawaensis; Bangiales, Rhodophyta) to dehydration stress differs with between two heteromorphic life-history stages. Algal Research 55, Art. No. 102262. DOI: 10.1016/j.algal.2021.102262.

van Zanten, Martijn; Ai, Haiyue; Quint, Marcel 2021: Plant thermotropism: An underexplored thermal engagement and avoidance strategy. Journal of Experimental Botany 72(21), pp. 7414–7420. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erab209.

Vazquez, Miriam Soledad; Rodriguez-Cabal, Mariano A.; Amico, Guillermo C. 2022: The forest gardener: A marsupial with a key seed-dispersing role in the Patagonian temperate forest. Ecological Research 37(2), pp. 270–283. DOI: 10.1111/1440-1703.12289.

Wang, Jiqin; Yi, Xiaoxia; Zeng, Xiangfei; Chen, Shuyuan; Wang, Rui; Shu, Jiancheng; Chen, Mengjun; Xiao, Zengxue 2021: Copper fractal growth during recycling from waste printed circuit boards by slurry electrolysis. Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering 15(6), Art. No. 117. DOI: 10.1007/s11783-021-1405-7.

Wei, Jerry; Suriawinata, Arief; Ren, Bing; Liu, Xiaoying; Lisovsky, Mikhail; Vaickus, Louis; Brown, Charles; Baker, Michael; Tomita, Naofumi; Torresani, Lorenzo; Wei, Jason; Hassanpour, Saeed 2021: A Petri dish for histopathology image analysis. [In:] Alan Tucker, Pedro Henriques Abreu, Jaime Cardoso, Pedro Pereira Rodrigues, David Riaño (eds), Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. AIME 2021. “Lecture Notes in Computer Science” vol. 12721. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 11–24. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-77211-6_2.

Yuan, Xi; Chen, Fusheng 2021: Cocultivation study of Monascus spp. and Aspergillus niger inspired from black-skin-red-koji by a double-sided Petri dish. Frontiers in Microbiology 12, Article number: 670684. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.670684.

Zaki, Elnaz; Abedi, Mehdi; Naqinezhad, Alireza 2021: How fire history affects germination cues of three perennial grasses from the mountain steppes of Golestan National Park. Flora 280, Art. No. 151835. DOI: 10.1016/j.flora.2021.151835.

Information

Information: Studia Historiae Scientiarum, 2023, 22 (2023), pp. 611 - 626

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.017.17708

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

The Misrepresentation of Petri Dish, as “petri” Dish, in the Scientific Literature

English:

The Misrepresentation of Petri Dish, as “petri” Dish, in the Scientific Literature

Authors

Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3299-2772

Published at: 05.10.2023

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY

Percentage share of authors:

Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

View count: 605

Number of downloads: 3

<p> The Misrepresentation of Petri Dish, as “petri” Dish, in the Scientific Literature</p>

Pobierz pełny tekst

Titles

Abstract

Keywords

References

Information

Authors