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A team of scientists claims that they have found a new way to measure the mass of a pulsar. They said this new met hid allows them to weigh a pulsar even if they are alone in space with no nearby object to use for reference.

So far the traditional way to measure the mass of a star, a planet or a moon is by studying the motion of the object in relation to the other nearby bodies.

The team of researchers from the University of Southampton presented their findings in the journal Science Advances. “For pulsars, we have been able to use principles of nuclear physics, rather than gravity, to work out what their mass is – an exciting breakthrough which has the potential to revolutionize the way we make this kind of calculation”, said university mathematician Wynn Ho.

According to the first ever global assessment, Cacti are one of the world’s most threatened species, even more as compared to mammals and birds. Cacti are native to arid parts of the Americas and have also been introduced to Africa, Australia and Europe. But as per the new research that 31% are threatened with extinction.

A scientist with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and co-lead author of the Global Cactus Assessment, Barbara Goettsch said that before this work just 160 of the approximately 1,500 cacti had been studied.

She said that now they have got a complete clear picture. She mentioned that cacti have been facing increasing pressure from human activity, such as illegal trade, which was quite higher than previously thought.

A study, published in Science Advances, has suggested the occurrence of a stupendously powerful megatsunami in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa about 73,000 years back. Scientists believe that around that time a huge flank of the volcanic island of Fogo collapsed into the ocean and unleashed a massive wave over 90m in height. The wave traveled about 50km to the island of Santiago.

The theory suggested that when the wave hit, it was so powerful that it surged over the top of an over 180m-high cliff and eventually attained water levels around 275m above sea level, which were about as high as the Eiffel Tower.

Black pine snakes have been added to list of threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The snake, which can grow to a length of about six feet, is found only in some areas of Mississippi and Alabama.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has released some exemptions that can help the snake species to recover its declining population. The snake has been added to the list as a threatened species, which means the species is at risk of becoming endangered in near future. As the species has been added to the list, it will be granted a series of exemptions that can benefits in its recovery.

A study has revealed that wildlife has been thriving around the radiation-contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone about three decades after the world's worst nuclear accident in the zone. According to researchers, a number of mammal species, such as roe deer, elk, wild boar, red deer and wolves, are thriving in the zone without human presence.

The study published in the journal Current Biology suggested that a nuclear disaster may be less harmful for wildlife than humans. The study authors said, “These results demonstrate for the first time that, regardless of potential radiation effects on individual animals, the Chernobyl exclusion zone supports an abundant mammal community after nearly three decades of chronic radiation”.

A study out of Sweden has suggested that your height could be associated with your risk of suffering from cancer. Though, researchers have said that there's no proof that being tall leads to the disease, their study of over five million Swedish men and women has discovered that for every 4 extra inches of adult height the cancer risk was associated with an 18% increase in women and 11% in men.

It suggested that taller women had a 20% higher risk of developing breast cancer. The study showed that in men and women, the risk of developing melanoma increased by nearly 30% for every 4 inches of height.