Dangerous but useful research ?

Scientists have done experiments that can enable a H5N1 virus to spread fast. Study was done on ferrets. However it is being feared that humans could be infected too and the research should not have been done. If the technique trickles out and goes in the wrong hands, it may be used as bio-weapons against humans. Virologists defend by saying that the research is critical to preventing, or at least preparing for, a pandemic.

"The real truth is so far nature has been the worst bioterrorist we know, and it comes up time and again with infectious agents that we couldn't even dream about, so research on bird flu must be continued," said Eckard Wimmer, of Stony Brook University in New York, who was one of the creators of the first synthetic virus.