gear

Conventional wind turbines have an Achilles heel in the form of their clunky and expensive gearboxes. But that could change with GE's recent purchase of a company that has developed gearless turbine technology based on magnets.

Gearboxes act as the middleman to convert the slow rotations of wind turbine blades into the faster rotations needed for generators to create electricity. The downside of such gears comes from their high-maintenance requirements due to constant stress from wind turbulence.

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Technology has replaced conscious memory in so many aspects of our lives, reminding us of our appointments or alerting us when our oil needs changing. But reminding us to blink? One Japanese company has developed a pair of glasses that does exactly that.

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How do you make a bicycle that never needs lube, never leaves grease on your pants, and always delivers smooth pedaling? Simple: Ditch the chain.

For its new Soho commuter bike, Trek replaced greasy metal links with a dry belt. Unlike other attempts at such bikes, the Soho is silky smooth to pedal. And it’s the first to offer multiple speeds, using an eight-gear transmission inside the rear-wheel hub.

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Bad news, tech lovers. IT is not so eco-friendly. According to University of Calgary researcher Richard Hawkins, digital technologies are not reducing our environmental footprint, but may in fact be turning us all into polluters.

"It was once assumed that there was little or no material dimension to information technology, thus, it should be clean with minimal environmental impact," says Hawkins. "However, we are finding that reality is much more complicated."

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We've all got the drawer. It has an indiscriminate collection of electronic connections, cords, and chargers for devices we haven't used in a decade and couldn't give away on eBay for free. But we guard that drawer with Obamian hope that the next purchase might actually require a serial port connection or that dot-matrix printers might hold the key to cold fusion. We wait for just one occasion to justify our persistence and silence throughout decades of shrieks from our significant others. It's likely that within that drawer are somewhere between six and ten cell phone chargers, one perhaps still connected through its one-of-a-kind connection to that swanky new flip phone you bought in 1999. We understand. We too have such a drawer, or cabinet or garage. But together, today, it's time to let go, just a little bit.

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To make a fabric-thin heater that runs for up to six hours—perfect for the insides of gloves, jackets or boots—Energy Integration Technologies did away with thermostats that suck power and take up space. Its system, Aevex, uses a flexible polymer film that automatically regulates its own temperature. [ Read Full Story ]

I hate the word "audiophile," which implies a fanatic who imagines he hears things that don't exist and spends far too much money to get those imaginary sounds. But I do like music. And I'm extremely proud that I was able to put together a respectable stereo system for just $300 (thanks to eBay and close-out sales).

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