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APRILIS ACQUIRES HOLOGRAPHIC STORAGE PATENTS

Aprilis Inc, a manufacturer of holographic media and data storage systems, has announced that it has reached an agreement with Tamarack Storage Devices, a wholly owned subsidiary of Manhattan Scientifics Inc, on the acquisition of 21 holographic data storage patents. The acquisition, which follows the recent release by Aprilis of its proprietary holographic storage media, represents a key step towards the Company's goal of producing the first-ever commercial holographic drive. The newly acquired Tamarack patents cover a broad range of important innovations that further solidify Aprilis's position in the holographic data storage arena and situates the Company to advance a number of initiatives to co-develop holographic drives.

The acquired intellectual property portfolio covers essential elements of optical architectures for read/write optics in drives using disk and card form factors. The portfolio also includes multiplexing methods for maximizing areal density, positioning, mounting and servo methods, enhanced read methods, and elements of media design and packaging.

"I see this acquisition as an important step in the development of our holographic drive strategy," said John Berg, CEO of Aprilis. "This acquisition fits well with our cooperative focus to co-develop, with our partners, drives that use the Aprilis holographic media as the standard recording platform."

"We recognize the potential role these 21 patents can play in the future development of holographic memory," said Jack Harrod, Chief Operating Officer of Manhattan Scientifics. "We transferred the patents to Aprilis in order to focus our efforts on our fuel cell and e-Touch Software activities. There is little doubt in my mind that the intellectual property will support Aprilis's focus on creating a mass holographic storage device."

Aprilis's proprietary high-performance, Write Once Read Many (WORM), holographic storage media, which was released last month, is the first commercially viable holographic storage media for the removable storage market. The media technology provides storage device manufacturers with a medium that can support a storage capacity of 200 GB and a data transfer rate of 100 MB/s in CD/DVD form factor. Aprilis's media can store data in pages of a million bits at a time in contrast to today's standard single word transfer rates, giving it a distinct and sustainable advantage in recording and retrieval times over magnetic and optical technologies.

"The performance attributes of Aprilis photopolymer media can be more fully realized with holographic drive technology related to the acquired IP portfolio," said David Waldman, vice president of Research and Development for Aprilis. "Consequently, an impressive roadmap is achievable for continual advancement in areal density."

Aprilis's holographic photopolymer media was selected as the preferred media in 1998 by the U.S. Government-funded PRISM Consortium, based upon its unique combination of performance attributes including dynamic range, data fidelity and recording sensitivity. In November of 2000, the HDSS consortium, using the Aprils media, demonstrated rapid, real-time holographic recording and retrieval of data at speeds of 1 Gigabit/sec on moving disk media.

About Manhattan Scientifics Inc

Manhattan Scientifics Inc is a company specializing in identification of and early stage investment in disruptive technologies, with the goal of commercialization and profit-creation for its shareholders. Copies of Manhattan Scientifics' press releases, current quotes, stock charts and other information for investors may be found on the Web sites www.mhtx.comand www.hawkassociates.com.

About Aprilis Inc

Aprilis Inc based in Maynard, MA, commenced operations in 1999 to commercialize proprietary holographic data storage technologies. The Company was founded on the vision of creating best-in-class storage devices based upon proprietary holographic data storage technologies. Aprilis's products, including its new media, are designed to provide the highest value through a unique combination of high capacity, performance, and reliability. Aprilis products are targeted for applications requiring near-line access to large amounts of data, including image databases and document and data warehousing. The Company's Web address is www.aprilisinc.com.

Contact: Glenn Horner, Ph.D., vice president, Business Development, Aprilis Inc, 978-450-1028, horner@aprilisinc.com.