> The influenza A virus, shown in a stylized scanning electron microscopic image
That's a cg render with ultra shallow depth of field like in typical optical microscope. Scanning electron microscopes have depth of field in order of few feet. How can I take rest of the article seriously?
Having worked at a newspaper, someone in web production was likely asked to search a stock image site for "influenza virus" to illustrate the article, and the caption is copied directly from there. In this case, it looks like you can blame the folks at https://www.sciencesource.com/.
It'll be someone entirely separate from the folks who wrote the text.
It's hard to convince folks to read your article without the introductory image (even if it is irrelevant or out right misleading). Sad but not totally unexpected given our short span to focus on anythin in the ocean of "information".
Here you can find the "non stylised" Electron Microscope image from another paper:
That's a cg render with ultra shallow depth of field like in typical optical microscope. Scanning electron microscopes have depth of field in order of few feet. How can I take rest of the article seriously?