Digital Painting of an Animal Cell Shared as X-ray Image of a Human Cell
The Claim
This is the most detailed image of a human cell.
News posted on
Emerging story
Social media users have recently widely circulated an image purporting that it is the most detailed image of a human cell to date. Internet users allege that the image was “obtained via radiography, nuclear MRI, and cryoelectronic microscopy."
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the circulating claim and found it to be misleading. The image is a digital painting designed by Russell Kightley, and shows an animal cell, not a human cell.
Digital Art by Russell Kightley
In a 2021 tweet, Kightley explained that the image is a digital painting of an animal cell and that it was designed for BioCam around 2001.
The image can also be seen featured in the wall chart gallery section on the BioCam website.
Misbar found that the image has been repeatedly circulated with false claims since 2021, which urged the artist to upload a blog post to clarify the nature of the artwork. The artist updated his post three days ago after the image went viral again.
“So an image going viral is mirroring, in the social media ecosystem, a real virus in nature, including the flawed commentary.” Kightley humorously comments. The artist also clarified the process of designing the image “The image was created twenty years ago for an educational poster for BioCam. It took six weeks of full-time work to create using Painter (Fractal Design's Painter as it was, now it's managed by Corel).”
Although the artist had clarified that the image is a scientific digital painting of an animal cell, and several fact-checking platforms have debunked previous claims regarding the image, it continues to trend with misleading claims.
Misbar has previously debunked other claims about digital paintings alleged to be real images.
Read More
Scientific Illustration Shared as a Detailed Image of a Human Cell
