It's also used to metaphorically represent an environment where an idea or trend can "grow and spread." You could say something like, "This company is a petri dish for innovation."

This emoji cleverly illustrates the double meaning of the word "culture." In science, it means a "bacterial culture," while socially, it means "culture." So, you can wittily express the process of a new K-Pop group emerging and its fandom growing as a "new culture being cultivated."