Google doodles on 160th birthday of petri dish inventor Julius Richard Petri

Google today celebrates 160th birth anniversary of German scientist Julius Richard Petri with an innovative doodle on its home page. The doodle features Petri's famous invention – the Petri Dish, used to culture cells or small moss plants.

Julius Richard Petri (May 31, 1852 – December 20, 1921) studied medicine at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Academy for Military Physicians (1871–1875) and got his medical degree in 1876. He continued his study at the Charité Hospital in Berlin and continued as a military physician until 1882.

From 1877 to 1879 he was working at the Imperial Health Office, where he assisted Robert Koch. Petri developed the standard culture dish, also known as Petri plate. He also developed the technique of agar culture to purify or clone bacteria colonies from single cells. His work is said to have made it easier for scientists to identify the bacteria responsible for diseases.

Modern Petri dishes often come with rings on the lids and bases, which enables stacking so that they don't slide off one another. There are now “multi-well plates” as well that allow multiple dishes to be incorporated into one plastic container. Learn more about Petri dishes here.

Today's animated Google Doodle features a series of the Petri dishes in Google colours, replacing the “Google” word. On clicking, a hand appears that swabs each of them. Then you can see as the bacteria grow. There's a lens button on the right that directs users to search results on Julius Richard Petri.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Google-doodles-on-160th-birthday-of-petri_14854.html

Google doodle celebrates Miriam Makeba's 81st birthday

The Google doodle is back. Today, Google's innovative take on its home page logo celebrates what is the 81st birth anniversary of South African singer and civil rights activist, Miriam Makeba. The legendary singer (March 4, 1932 – November 9, 2008), is popularly known as Mama Africa.

Miriam Makeba was among the first African artists to popularise African music in the U.S. and the world in the 60's. Makeba is highly famous for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. Makeba has worked with various popular artists including Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon and Hugh Masekela.

Besides her illustrious music career, Makeba is also known for her active campaigns against the South African system of apartheid. She was sent to exile due to her protests in 1959. She returned home for the first time in 1990. Read more about Miriam Makeba here.

Today's doodle is a static one, displaying Miriam Makeba holding a mike and performing. In the background, there is African-style graffiti wall with the five letters of Google in white. Check out today's doodle below:

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Google-doodle-celebrates-Miriam-Makebas-81st-birthday_13718.html

Google celebrates its 14th birthday with a chocolate cake doodle

Google celebrates its 14th birth anniversary with an animated doodle on its home page. The doodle features a cake with 14 candles, and below that, portions of a chocolate cake, which together form the word “Google”.

The doodle is complimented by 14 candles that tally the number of years that Google completed. Upon clicking, the doodle directs visitors to the search engines results page for the word “Google”. Take a look at today's doodle below:

Google, now a dominant Internet company, was started as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996. The company filed for Inc. on September 4, 1998 and booked Google.com domain on September 15, 1998. The company later chose to celebrate its birthday on September 27, most probably to avoid being too close to the tragic September 11 event. Google, however, says it's just “whenever they feel like eating cake.”

On its 13th birthday, Google's doodle featured five letters of the company logo donning party hats seated around a cake with balloons and gifts around. Check out Google's 13th birthday doodle here.

Over the years, Google has played a pivotal role in changing the way we use the Internet, making it simple and convenient for us. Its contributions to the web has been invaluable, and the company has continuously updated things around. For more read Google's top seven contributions to the Internet. 

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Google-celebrates-its-14th-birthday-with-a_10893.html