Always with the Best of Intentions

Until now, the [bird flu] virus only passes on to humans via direct physical contact with infected birds - particularly by eating poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese - which has allowed public health officials to keep outbreaks under control.

[...]

[S]cientists have long been concerned about the much more serious consequences if the H5N1 virus ever mutated into an airborne form. So in an attempt to work out how that might happen, and to formulate a scientific and medical response, [scientists from the Netherlands and the US have engineered a version of the H5N1 bird flu virus that can be transmitted atmospherically] with the intention of publishing their results so that others [may] study it too.

  alJazeera

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.