This episode is presented by eBay.

Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.

Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else. Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most

importantly, free. It's free, Rob. When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great

deals on things you love. You can't help but say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business

sellers.

Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting December 10th, 2008. I'm Steve Merski.

Are you aware of an impending attack on the planet Earth?

Yes.

That's a scene from the new movie The Day the Earth stood still, an updated version of the

classic 1951 film of the same name that opens December 12th.

We'll talk with director Scott Derrickson about the movie, his astronomer advisor, and

other science-y stuff related to the film, and we'll hear from Nobel laureate Richard Roberts about

open-access science publishing, plus we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the

news. First up, director Scott Derrickson, he called in last Saturday. We started by talking about

particular challenges of remaking an iconic film.

The original was 57 years ago,

and a lot of the elements of it, you know,

needed to be updated for modern audiences and modern audience expectations and that sort of thing.

But it is still very much an attempt to preserve aspects and elements, iconic

elements from the original film, and certainly the basic storyline from the original film

that made it special in the first place. So it's a tricky balance putting those two things

...