Using doorbell cameras to measure rainfall could help conserve thousands of gallons of irrigation water — and save you money.

Even a toddler knows that plants need water. It’s perhaps the first thing we learn about these green lifeforms. But how plants budget this resource varies considerably. The kapok trees of the Amazon have adopted vastly different strategies than the switchgrass of the American plains. Unfortunately, it’s hard to directly measure which ones prevail in different ecosystem types and how they shift under changing conditions.

In a paper published in Science Bulletin, an international team of scientists reported a series of basaltic lavas and picrites with E-MORB/OIB affinities from the Qilian-Qinling Accretionary Belt, Central China. They have recorded a 150-Myr development history of the Proto-Tethys Ocean from opening at ~620 Ma to continuous spreading at ~470 Ma.