A system that measures how plants will respond to drought has been developed by University of Cape Town scientists. It meant getting up before dawn for more than two years and attaching minuscule sensors to the leaves of plants in the mountains of the Western Cape.Adam West, Rob Skelton and their team monitored each plant to track temperature, carbon intake and rate of photosynthesis.The system allows researchers to make much quicker surveys of the needs of a greater number of plants.It has also helped uncover "biological libraries" because the plants and their rhythms contain boundless information for botanists.The greatest value, however, is the ability to track and record the effect climate change has on plant life."Land plants have been around for 400-million years and we are beginning to uncover ancient secrets bigger than us," said West...