Benthos Spheres Chosen for International Research Project.

Business Editors/Science Writers

NORTH FALMOUTH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2004

BENTHOS, INC. (NASDAQ: BTHS) announced today that it has been awarded a significant contract to produce spherical glass instrument housings for an international research project being conducted in the ice below the South Pole.

Project IceCube, as the observatory is known, is a next-generation subatomic particle telescope. It has been described as a telescope made from a cubic kilometer of ice below the surface of the South Pole. The system will measure and chart the path of cosmic neutrinos, ephemeral and ghostlike particles of matter, as they pass from space through the earth. Following the trails of neutrinos back to their point of origin allows for much greater insight into phenomena such as colliding black holes, gamma-ray bursters, the violent cores of distant galaxies and the wreckage of exploding stars.

Made up of 4,800 glass optical modules on 80 strings imbedded .8 to 1.5 miles into the ice, the IceCube telescope would effectively convert a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice into the world's largest scientific instrument. The $250 million observatory is scheduled to be constructed over the next seven years.

Benthos will supply the 13-inch diameter glass spheres that house the optical modules. These spheres were chosen for their unique glass properties, strength and durability, as well as their nearly 40-year track record as a reliable oceanographic housing.

Project IceCube is a one-cubic-kilometer international high-energy neutrino observatory being built and installed in the clear deep ice below the South Pole Station. IceCube is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. OPP-9980474 (AMANDA) and OPP-0236449 (IceCube), University of Wisconsin-Madison. More information on the project can be found at http://icecube.wisc.edu.

Benthos, Inc., through its Undersea Systems Division, designs, manufactures, sells and services a variety of oceanographic products for underwater tasks; and through its TapTone Package Inspection Systems Division makes systems for testing consumer packages made of glass, metal or plastic. The common stock of the Company is traded on the Nasdaq SmallCap market under the symbol BTHS. For more information, Benthos can be found on the Internet at www.benthos.com.

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