Forget the carbon-fiber bike that costs more than your house. How about one made of plastic? The Innervision bike is a design concept by industrial designer Matt Clark that ditches high-cost complex materials for pre-molded plastic parts.

Even the fishermen are going green. Any angler worth his bait has lost a few lines to the bottom of the fishing pond. And, chances are the line he lost is still lying there with those of his ancestors, damaging coral and killing fish. Traditional nylon lines can take up to 600 years to disappear, but with Bioline, a new "biofilament" line developed by alumni of the med-tech industry, that time can be cut to just five years. That's fishing technology even the fish will embrace.

Music can inspire much. It can evoke emotions and insert itself into our memories—but even Tom Petty ain’t getting me through 26.2 miles. Half that? Maybe. That's what the scientists behind yesterday's "Run to the Beat" half marathon were banking on by including 17 bands along the London course that were systematically chosen to distract runners from the misery of the moment.

British sports psychologist Dr. Costas Karageorghis helped pick the individual tempo, genre and location of each band to best benefit the runners.

Most avid runners have their 'song': "Chariots of Fire", "Don't Stop Believing", "Freefalling". But is it the terribly clichéd lyrics or the beat itself that provides inspiration? The Yamaha BodiBeat is part MP3 player, part heart-rate monitor, and part metronome for your workout. The gadget serves as a personal trainer and DJ by selecting songs with the beats per minute necessary to keep you going. Armed with a setlist of Journey and Sublime, and in search of a nine-minute mile, we tested the device on the hills of San Francisco.