All About Nanotechnology

So what is Nanotechnology you ask? Nanotechnology is defined as the science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules, or the branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers.

A nanometer is about ten thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. Nanotechnology deals with and manipulates anything that occurs within the scale of a nanometer.

Nanotechnology is an extension of the field of materials science. Materials science departments at colleges and universities around the world are leading the way in current nanotechnology breakthroughs. The term Nanotechnology is also often used to describe the interdisciplinary fields of science devoted to the study of the nanoscale phenomena utilized in Nanotechnology.

The future benefits that nanotechnology research could serve include advances in telecommunications, information technology, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

For additional information on Nanotechnology, what it consists of as well as its current and future impacts on the world of science, simply select any Nanotechnology article or other interactive

Matsushita to sell 42-inch full high def plasma TV

Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday it planned to launch the world's first 42-inch plasma TVs with full high definition panels on April 27 in Japan.

Matsushita hopes to challenge liquid crystal display TV makers by providing a better lineup of full high definition models, which can produce images with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels.

Matsushita is the world's largest plasma TV maker and competes with Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sharp Corp. in the $84 billion flat TV market.

Plasma TV makers already offer 50-inch and larger full high-definition models, but it has been difficult and often costly to pack this technology into smaller models.

Reuters Pictures

The 42-inch TVs from Matsushita are expected to sell for 410,000 yen to 430,000 yen ($3,449-$3,617), the Osaka-based company said.

It plans to manufacture 25,000 units of them a month for the domestic market. The Japan launch will soon be followed by overseas debuts.

Matsushita's plasma TV sales came to an equivalent of about 4 million 42-inch models in the year ended March 31, and the company aims to boost those sales by 50 percent to 6 million units in the current business year, a company spokesman said.

Matsushita, which controls one-third of the global plasma TV market according to DisplaySearch, plans to bring its $1.5 billion plasma display plant onstream by summer 2007 to take on the LCD camp.