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[BobBobson]

I don't know if this type of information gathering is allowable, so I'll post in spoilers:

[JustAnotherHunch]

Holy Crap

[JustAnotherHunch]

Holy Crap all over again.

[JustAnotherHunch]

A member at args.bungie.org has found this picture to be a sonogram.

Proof is at this image.

Notice the gradient, B9 on top, CNO, DR78, and G48 on the bottom. Also, you can see the letters MI in the lower right corner which is also seen in the slide image.

[IMnotGarbage]

I agree with the sonogram theory. I can't believe no one saw it this way before.

[violentvixen]

I knew it didn't look quite right for a TEM picture...

[texrangr35]

So what significance, if any, does the fact that it is a sonogram have? Does any of this help (quoted from Wikipedia)? :

Medical sonography (ultrasonography) is an ultrasound-based diagnostic medical imaging technique used to visualize muscles, tendons, and many internal organs, their size, structure and any pathological lesions with real time tomographic images.

However, ultrasound energy has two potential physiological effects: it enhances inflammatory response; and it can heat soft tissue.[3] Ultrasound energy produces a mechanical pressure wave through soft tissue. This pressure wave may cause microscopic bubbles in living tissues, and distortion of the cell membrane, influencing ion fluxes and intracellular activity. When ultrasound enters the body, it causes molecular friction and heats the tissues slightly. This effect is very minor as normal tissue perfusion dissipates heat. With high intensity, it can also cause small pockets of gas in body fluids or tissues to expand and contract/collapse in a phenomena called cavitation (this is not known to occur at diagnostic power levels used by modern diagnostic ultrasound units).

Soft tissue imaging of many other parts of the body is conducted with ultrasound. Other scans routinely conducted are cardiac, renal, liver and gallbladder (hepatic). Other common applications include musculo-skeletal imaging of muscles, ligaments and tendons, ophthalmic ultrasound (eye)scans and superficial structures such as testicle, thyroid, salivary glands and lymph nodes. Because of the real time nature of ultrasound, it is often used to guide interventional procedures such as fine needle aspiration FNA or biopsy of masses for cytology or histology testing in the breast, thyroid, liver, kidney, lymph nodes, muscles and joints.

Treating benign and malignant tumors and other disorders, via a process known as Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS) or HIFU, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. These procedures generally use lower frequencies than medical diagnostic ultrasound (from 250 kHz to 2000 kHz), but significantly higher time-averaged intensities. The treatment is often guided by MRI, as in Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound.

Ultrasound has been shown to act synergistically with antibiotics in bacterial cell killing.

Some sorts of ultrasound can disintegrate biological cells including bacteria. This has uses in biological science and in killing bacteria in sewage. High power ultrasound at frequency of around 20 kHz produces cavitation that facilitates particle disintegration.

Sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound.

[texrangr35]

[thebruce]

The only problem I have with the theory is that while the labels on the image are from a sonogram, the image itself doesn't flow with the standard visual of a sonogram... a sonogram is a projection, like a visual slice vertically from the source through the object - this is a like a flat visual, a horizontal plate magnification.

First thought that comes to mind is they wanted an official looking diagram so used sonogram labels, but wanted a microscopic visualization of a virus so pieced them together... but I really hope not. My hope is that this is some form of technologically advanced sonogram that corrects for projection distortion and has a much higher resolution... don't know what to think...
But it's not a standard sonogram (at least of the kind linked above by JustAnotherHunch)

[mogbert]

I agree with thebruce. The picture itself is obviously a Scanning Electron Microscope picture, and I also have no reason not to believe the metadata that indicates this. They grabbed the Sonogram Overlay to make it look more medical-ish, to punch-afy it up a little. As such, it shows that the letters and numbers around the sonogram don't mean anything. To support this, I would like to point out at the bottom left the letters "CNO" which should instead be "CN0", per the top right of the picture, the 0's have a slash through them. It was just a quick and dirty photoshop to make it look science fiction-y. People are overthinking this picture.

It is what it is.

The exception to this is the "CnRL - Infc HR 568" which they didn't grab from the sonogram. These letters might mean something,

[pondrthis]

actually, mogbert, IMO it is most DEFINITELY not a SEM picture. An SEM provides a 3d-looking image, and usually has color. This picture has neither. As a person who studies and works on imaging devices, I would know a bit about SEM's . Anyway, I agree that it is not a traditional sonogram, as thebruce said.

[mogbert]

My mistake.

What about a Transmission Electron Microscope?

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/animals/story3/macell.htm

Right hand side, second picture.
It appears similar.

[violentvixen]

Yeah, it's definitely not SEM.

I work in a TEM lab, and while this could be a TEM picture, it isn't quite right. It's not transparent enough and there is just too much dark stuff for a normal micrograph.

There are a large number of methods for TEM, however, so I could be wrong. But it could easily have been a TEM picture originally and then modified.

I think I like the sonogram modification idea the best.

[mogbert]

Hmmm... to try and clear this up I've e-mailed S.Lowry to ask what he used for this photo. Don't worry, I was very polite and hopefully I'll get a response like I did from gettyimages.

BTW- BT52 1SA isn't a secret code or antibody strain, i'm afraid. It's a postal code for Northern Ireland, where University of Ulster is located.

Turns out Sharon Lowry doesn't take the pictures, Steve Lowry does. I fixed it.

[Foz]

Don't Peek