Bird Flu may not have hit New York yet, but it's hit the New York Times. The Gray Lady ran a bunch of articles in yesterday's Science Times section. You can read this one from a skeptic who believes that the threat, while serious, is probably overblown, and this one from David Nabarro at the U.N., who is "quite scared" about what could happen. The Times weighs in with its own assessment of how serious the risk is.

If those don't satisfy you, you can read about the last major pandemic that killed a lot of people, in 1918, and read about the anatomy of the virus and what scientists are trying to do to curtail it. You can also read about the choices health officials are likely to have to make, and find out just how much more miserable the lives and deaths of chickens have become.