For Immediate Release

BIRNS Selected for IceCube Project

Oxnard, CA, September 15, 2005 – BIRNS, Inc., makers of the high-performance Metal Shell Connector Series, announced today that it was selected by the University of Wisconsin’s Physical Sciences Laboratory to supply cable assemblies for the IceCube Project. This program is an outgrowth of AMANDA (Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array), and will ultimately instrument 1 Km³ of ice at the South Pole.

A neutrino telescope must be huge, transparent, dark, and far below the surface to shield it from cosmic rays. Neutrino astrophysicists are using the 3Km-thick Antarctic ice cap because it is exceptionally clear and almost completely free of radioactivity. Light from passing muons can travel hundreds of meters through the ice, while 1.5Km below the surface the ice is otherwise completely dark. Astrophysicists have buried >700 sensors deep in the Antarctic ice cap to watch for the faint flashes of light produced by the passage of high energy subatomic particles. These sensors comprise AMANDA, a new generation of high energy neutrino telescope, which searches for energetic neutrino emissions from other galaxies as well as supernova explosions within our own galaxy.

“We’re proud to be a part of this fascinating program”, said Eric Birns, CEO. “We developed high-power connectors for IceCube’s submersible pumps, instrumentation connectors for the temperature and pressure sensors, and we’re overmolding the cables with special materials to withstand the South Pole's extreme cold, all within a very narrow transport window. That's why clients with challenging performance requirements come to BIRNS....because few other companies can meet their needs.”

IceCube is a 1 Km³ international high-energy neutrino observatory being built and installed in the clear deep ice below the South Pole Station. It will open unexplored bands for astronomy, including the PeV (10¹⁵ eV) energy region, and may provide insights into gamma ray bursts, the particle nature of dark matter, and help discover supersymmetric particles and topological defects created in grand unified phase transitions in the early universe.

Founded in 1954, BIRNS, Inc. of Oxnard, CA, is a leading manufacturer of high-performance lighting and connector systems for deep-ocean and nuclear use. In addition to lights, BIRNS manufactures connectors in six different ranges, including Aquamate wet-mateables and Millennium high-density deep-submergence styles.