US website '˜confused Nicola Sturgeon for scientist'

A US media website went viral in Scotland after eagle eyed Twitter users spotted that their '˜stock image' of a scientist was actually First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, not a scientist. Picture: Contributed/Getty Images

Vox, a progressive campaigning website, chose to illustrate their story about the controversial Health Care reforms currently making their way through Congress, with an image of a woman looking through a microscope.

Little did they know that far from being the stock-image scientist they thought, it was actually Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, posing during a visit to a research facility.

The blunder, which has since been removed, was first spotted by journalist Jamie Ross on Twitter.

Nicola Sturgeon

One user wrote: “Why you need a strategy for image sourcing - so you don’t use a picture of Nicola Sturgeon as a ‘generic scientist’”.

Another added - “Seems Nicola Sturgeon has been having a second life as a stock-photo scientist in America.”

It’s not the first time a political leader in the UK has been mistaken for a stock image.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband was used as the stock image for a piece about the cold and flu season aired on US TV channel NBC in December 2016.