Pokémon’s TV series has been delighting animé lovers for more than 26 years, and yet, there’s one episode that even the most diehard of fans may well have missed. The installment, titled Dennō Senshi Porygon (which roughly translates as "Computer Warrior Porygon”) aired in Japan on December 16, 1997. And, after that single, fateful outing, it was never to grace television screens again. The reason for the ban? Reports of a strange health outbreak among children which was linked to a specific scene. The episode follows Ash Ketchum, Pikachu and their pals as they investigate a faulty Poké Ball transfer machine by getting inside it. Once there, the team come under attack, but are saved when Pikachu unleashes one of his high-octane electric outbursts – represented by a barrage of red and blue strobe lights. And that’s where the trouble began. According to scientific paranormal investigator Benjamin Radford and sociologist Robert Bartholomew, who dedicated a study to the event: "At 6:51 PM, the flashing lights of Pikachu's 'attack' appeared on television screens. “By 7:30 PM, according to Japan's Fire-Defense Agency, 618 children had been taken to hospitals complaining of various symptoms." These symptoms included convulsions, nausea and vomiting, with news of the “illness” spreading rapidly throughout the country. Inevitably, it made headlines, with several news broadcasters replaying the offending clip, “whereupon even more children fell ill and sought medical attention,” Radford and Bartholomew wrote. The following day, TV Tokyo issued an apology, suspended the show, and announced an investigation into the cause of the seizures. Meanwhile, video retailers pulled the series from their shelves, and even the then-prime minister Ryuaro Hashimoto expressed concern at the use of rays and lasers in the popular cartoon. Within two days, the number of children reported to have been affected by the flashing sequence increased to around 12,700. And yet, after four months of investigation – with input from health experts and Japanese government officials – no obvious cause could be found for the outbreak and Pokémon returned to the airwaves. Because, although the bright flashes were assumed to be the cause of the health panic, such visual techniques had been used in numerous other animé episodes before, with no reports of any problems. So what was going on here? Well, a tiny fraction of the children who reported being affected were diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy, with experts concluding that the rapid colour changes during the scene caused them to suffer seizures. However, the bulk of “patients” reported symptoms that had no identifiable “organic” cause and were, instead, consistent with a very different type of condition… Mass hysteria. Radford and Bartholomew attribute this “epidemic hysteria”, in large part, to the mass media, which they say fuelled panic and misinformation. "Many of the children's symptoms had no identifiable organic basis; other than the verified cases of seizures, the symptoms reported were minor and short-lived; the victims were nearly exclusively school children in early adolescence; and anxiety from dramatic media reports of the first wave of illness reports was evident,” they wrote. “Media reports and publicity fuel the hysteria as news of the affliction spreads, planting the idea or concern in the community while reinforcing and validating the veracity of the illness for the initial victims,” they continued. “According to news accounts of the time, the number of children said to be affected remained around 700 the evening of the Pokémon episode and the next day. “The next morning, the episode dominated the Japanese news. Japanese children who had not heard about their peers from the news or from their parents learned of it that morning when the seizures ‘were the talk of the schoolyards’,” they continued. “Once the children had a chance to hear panicky accounts of what had happened through the mass media, their friends and their schools, the number of children reported the next day to have been initially affected – 2 days earlier – increased by 12,000.” Radford and Bartholomew ended their paper by noting that this Pokémon drama offers a warning to us all. They pointed out that our continuing reliance on mass communications, especially TV and the internet, places us at risk of more and more hysteria outbreaks. “Technological innovations are occurring at unprecedented rates and have the potential to influence significant numbers of people beyond the typical number in traditional mass hysteria episodes,” they stressed. “Epidemic hysterias that in earlier periods were self-limited by geography now have free and wide access to the globe in seconds.” Concluding on an ominous note, they added: “The Pokémon illness symptoms are without precedence, given the large numbers affected, and may be a harbinger of future technological hysterias that have the capacity to affect unprecedented numbers of people at a phenomenal speed.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Getting a case of laryngitis is an unpleasant experience and can happen to anyone. But singers are more prone to the throat condition and the latest performer to have come down with laryngitis is Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner. The band were forced to cancel a concert in Dublin that was scheduled for Thursday (22 June), and their appearance at Glastonbury this weekend has also been thrown into doubt. In a statement, the Arctic Monkeys said: “Alex is suffering from acute laryngitis and, following medical advice, has been ordered to rest.” According to the NHS, the illness can sometimes come on suddenly, but can be linked to other illnesses, such as colds and flu. It occurs when the voice box or vocal cords in the throat become irritated or swollen. It’s an uncomfortable illness, but can usually be treated at home or with help from a pharmacist. Here’s everything you need to know about laryngitis. What are the symptoms? Laryngitis can sometimes come on without warning and patients feel the worst during the first three days. The main symptoms are a hoarse voice or sometimes losing your voice; an irritating cough that doesn’t go away; always needing to clear your throat; and having a sore throat. In children, there can be additional symptoms including a temperature of 38C or above; losing their appetite; or having difficulty breathing, but this last symptom is rare. How long does it take to treat? Most people recover from laryngitis after one to two weeks, and don’t need to see a GP. The NHS advises treating the condition by drinking plenty of fluids and gargling with warm salty water, if you are an adult. You should also try to rest your voice as much as possible. This means speaking as little as you can, and if you must, do not talk loudly or whisper as both can strain your voice. Keeping the air moist is also helpful in treating laryngitis. You can increase the amount of moisture in the air by putting out bowls of water. Be aware that central heating and air conditioning can make the air drier. Staying out of smoky or dusty places will also help, as well as avoiding smoking cigarettes. You should steer clear of caffeine or alcohol as they can cause dehydration. Pharmacists can help with treating the symptoms by providing paracetamol or ibuprofen, cough syrup, gargling solution, or lozenges to soothe the throat. When should I see a GP about laryngitis? You should see your GP if your symptoms do not improve after two weeks, or if you keep getting laryngitis or problems with your voice. The GP may carry out some procedures to try and figure out what is the cause, including looking inside the throat with a small mirror, wiping a cotton bud around the back of the throat to be tested, and arranging a blood test. You may also be referred to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist if the condition keeps occurring. If it is very painful or you are finding if difficult to swallow, you should call 111. If you or your child are having difficulty breathing, you should call 999 or go to A&E. Read More I couldn’t climax, so I let ‘big testosterone’ take me for a ride ‘What in the wingardium leviosa?’: Emma Watson shocks fans with ‘levitating’ dress Harry and Meghan ‘Duke and Duchess of Dior’ rumours untrue, report says What is egg freezing and how does it work? Regular napping could be good for brain health, research suggests Dramatic rise in the number of women freezing their eggs

We talk about climate change and the devastating effects of greenhouse gases on a daily basis, yet many of us have never heard of Eunice Newton Foote. The American scientist was the first person to realise the alarming impact of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, all the way back in 1856. So, to mark what would have been her 204th birthday, Google has dedicated today’s Doodle to the environmental pioneer. Head to the search engine and you’ll find an 11-part slideshow explaining Foote’s most significant work. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It goes on to point out that her research was largely ignored for almost 100 years, and credits her with being the first person to “plant a seed of interest in the issue of climate change”. And for anyone wondering, her surname is no coincidence: her father was allegedly a distant relative of Sir Isaac Newton. In a blurb to its Doodle, Google points out that whilst science was Foote’s lifelong passion, she also dedicated time to campaigning for women’s rights. In 1848, she attended the first Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York State and became the fifth signatory of the Declaration of Sentiments — which demanded equality for women in social and legal status. Back then, women were largely shunned from the scientific community, but this didn’t stop Foote from conducting experiments on her own. After placing mercury thermometers in glass cylinders, she noticed that the cylinder containing carbon dioxide heated up the most and took the longest to cool down. As a result, she became the first scientist to draw a connection between rising CO2 levels and the warming of the atmosphere. After publishing her findings, Foote wrote a second paper on atmospheric static electricity for the journal ‘Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’. These were the first two physics studies to be published by a woman in the US, as Google notes. In 1856, a male scientist presented her work at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This then lead to further experiments which uncovered what is now known as the Greenhouse effect. And whilst none of us relish the fact this phenomenon exists, we should be eternally grateful to Foote for flagging it to us, all those years ago. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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