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Pictures of the week: From baby twin pandas to a very slimy beauty treatment

Here's our pick of the pictures from around the world this week...

Zookeepers were stunned when giant panda Lun Lun gave birth to not one - but two - baby panda's at Zoo Atlanta this week (Reuters)

A pink, orange and purple sunset is pictured at Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire. Britain has been experiencing the longest heatwave since 2006 with temperatures regularly hitting the mid-30s (Drew Buckley / Rex Features)

The jet set: Holidaymakers have been soaring above the waves on jet packs which can thrust you into the air at 30mph. (Rex)

Off to Edward Snowden's hiding place? Vladimir Putin rides in a submersible in the Baltic Sea near Gotland Island, Russia. Putin is regularly pictured demonstrating his "masculine" hobbies, from arm wrestling to riding topless on a horse (Photo by Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)

A hospital breakfast is seen beside Saurav Kumar, a boy who ate one of the contaminated free meals given to primary school children in Patna, India. At least 23 children died as a result of eating the lunches funded by the government (Reuters)

A child holds up balloons with images of former South African President Nelson Mandela in Mexico City. Supporters around the world wished the anti-apartheid leader happy birthday as he celebrated his 95th in a hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, where he is recovering from a lung infection (Reuters)

A teddy bear goes fishing in this pothole artwork. A woman who was sick of the potholes on her road turned them into artwork. Laura Murphy from Hailsham, East Sussex, was so annoyed by the six-month wait to fix the potholes outside her home that she made these arty snaps to get the council's attention - and it worked (M & Y News Ltd / Rex Features)

Keith Straw, 58, dressed in a pink ballet tutu and pink camouflage leg warmers bows his head under the scorching sun during the Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley National Park, California. The 135-mile race, which bills itself as the world's toughest foot race, goes from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, California in temperatures which can reach 55C (Reuters)

A DC-10 tanker drops bright orange fire supression retardant on a wildfire near Idyllwild Wild, Palm Springs, California. Wildfires are a common occurence during this time of year (ZUMA / Rex Features)

Rule Britannia: A royal supporter is covered in Union Jacks as he stands outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, where Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth (Reuters)

Clinical-Salon Ci:z.Labo in Tokyo, Japan, demonstrates a unique facial treatment called "Celeb Escargot Course". The 10,500 yen (£69) hour-long treatment relies on snail's slime which is believed to make one's skin supple as well as remove dry and scaly patches (Reuters)

Possible breakthrough in skin cancer treatment

Cancer cells induced to 'eat themselves'

Cases of deadly skin cancer, also known as melanoma, are increasing at alarming rates in the UK - it is now the biggest killer of women in their twenties as we reported here.

When advanced melanoma does not respond to either chemotherapy or immunotherapy, and cannot be treated with surgery, the survival rate is usually very low.

But Spanish scientists have discovered an unexpected vulnerability in melanoma cells that can cause them to effectively eat themselves, known as autophagy.

The processes involved are complex and not fully understood. Previous research has shown that autophagy can play a part in both the halting and the spread of cancer cells.

Normal healthy animal cells are able to recognize and respond to invading viruses. Animal cells, including humans', contain single strands of RNA (ssRNA). In viruses, the RNA is double stranded (dsRNA). This allows human cells to identify the cells containing virus and recognise it as a threat.

In the new study, scientists found that melanoma cells still retain the ability to recognize and respond to dsRNA, raising the possibility that if introduced into melanoma cells, they could be fooled into attacking themselves.

By introducing a chemical designed to mimic dsRNA into the melanoma cells, they were able to stimulate melanoma cells to digest themselves. But the scientists noted that the manner in which the chemical mimic was added to the cells was critical to the success of the process.

Encouragingly, when tested on mice the process resulted in "significant anti-melanoma activity...without notable side effects" according to Dr. Maria S. Soengas, who authored the study which appears in the August edition of the journal Cancer Cell.

At this stage it is too early to say if this process will be of benefit in human cases, but it does represent an exciting new avenue for further research.