The nation that gave the world counterfeit toys, fake toothpaste and poisoned pet food also gave 3 billion television viewers a bogus fireworks show of Olympic proportions Friday night, according to media reports Monday. The spectacular fireworks telecast to billions of viewers around the world at the end of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics Friday night were largely faked using computer animation and the audience wasn't told, the Beijing Times newspaper revealed.

With the scorching hot subways and the elevated temperatures brought by summer, people here have been turning to Botox treatments to stop sweating. Botulinum toxin, or Botox, can be used not just to stop wrinkles, but to stop sweating as well. An injection of the poison can cut off the nerves to the sweat glands.

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have been able to hide three-dimensional objects by using artificially engineered materials that redirected lights around the object. The discovery is one step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light. The researchers, led by Xiang Zhang, used metamaterials that deflected light, radar or other waves around an object such as water flowing around a smooth stone in a river.

For some people the first puff of smoke they tried felt repulsive while for others those puffs came with a rush of pleasure. Researchers have identified a gene variant that may help explain why some smokers get addicted from their first cigarette while others seem immune to the addictive properties of tobacco. The paper published online in the journal Addiction reports an association between a variant in the nicotine receptor gene CHRNA5, initial smoking experiences and current smoking patterns. This gene is far more common among smokers than in those who have the occasional cigarette.

Preliminary studies of the latest outbreak that killed at least 38 Warao Indians in northeastern Venezuela indicate that it may be a type of infectious rabies transmitted by bites from bats, according to indigenous leaders and researchers from the University of California at Berkeley. Though laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis point to rabies, said the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs. The victims also had an extreme fear of water coupled with convulsions before death.