Mainstream photoacoustic imaging methods approximate the human body as a fluid.  This assumption is reasonable for soft tissues, but breaks down for bones.  Cortical bone is a stiffer material than soft tissues, with a wavespeed that is dependent on the direction of wave propagation (anisotropy).  We have recently developed a new method for reconstructing photoacoustic images in collaboration with colleagues in the Laboratoire d’Imagerie Biomédicale in Paris, which accounts for the true properties of  cortical bone.  This work was published in Applied Physics Letters and serves as a launching point toward enabling photoacoustic imaging in human bones.