The Edison Effect
December 17, 2025 • EPISODE 291
What if Thomas Edison’s greatest discovery wasn’t the light bulb? In this episode of Science LIVE, Dr. Roger Billings explores the Edison Effect and how Edison’s experiments paved the way for electron tubes and modern electronics. Discover why this overlooked breakthrough mattered then—and why it still shapes technology today.
About DrB
Dr. Roger Billings is a visionary innovator whose work has touched the lives of millions of students and transformed the landscape of education. Widely known as “DrB” to the countless kids who benefit from his groundbreaking Acellus learning system, Dr. Billings has dedicated his life to advancing education through technology.
As part of DrB’s lifelong commitment to supporting education, Science LIVE was launched as a way to “give back” by mentoring students in conjunction with the Roger Billings Scholarship Program.
Read more about DrB »
About the Roger Billings Scholarship Program »
I think the cell phone thing was fascinating. The fact that when they were doing the final demo for the iPhone and it was multiple different phones is crazy. Only Jobs would’ve hade the guts to do that.
Thomas Edison is very cool!
R51 is truly amazing
You explain this so well.
Thomas Edison has taken us to so many amazing scientifical advancements!
Thomas Edison had some generation changing ideas
I love Science Live
Who else loves science live????
Happy new years to everyone!!!
I absolutely adore Thomas Edison’s work thank you for doing this video about him!
Thank you for sharing these videos with us every week. They’re very informative.
Thank you Dr. Billings
Merry Christmas from Florida
Thomas Edison is a truly fascinating person.
Thomas Edison was genius. Happy holidays to all.
I love the Science Lives!
Thank you so much for posting these videos every week.
My mom told me about Thomas Edison!
This science live was very interesting, and it is probably one of the best ones.
Wishing you a joyful New Year!
The Edison Effect is so cool!
This weeks science live was wonderful, I love Thomas Edison!
Merry late christmas everybody from Texas!
Thomas Edison was on another level super intelligent man
I loved learning about Thomas Edison!
I had a great Christmas and I’m enjoying watching all about Thomas Edison. He was a very smart man.
Thomas Edison was a genius!
I would love to take the sign language course! I love the Science Lives!!!
Absolute class as always. Love how I learn something new every time I watch science live.
This week’s science live was awesome! I love Thomas Edison!
merry christmas from Hawaii
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I love
Acellus school !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks dr billings you are the best.
thank you Matthew
Happy new year everyone ✨️
Happy New Years everyone.
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the Edison effect is cool to hear about!
I love the science lives! Happy holidays to everyone
Thomas Edison was a really smart and incredible person.
Oh Chemistry~ Oh Chemistry~ ~ I love Science!
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Its amazing how the Edison effect has created a huge part of the world today, I loved this science live very cool.
I love R51!
I believe Thomas Edison was a very influential inventor that affected many inevntions today.
love doing science live look forward to it every week
We love you R51!!!
Learning ASL would be so awesome. Happy Holidays!
Hello from Michigan again! Love Science lives each week and R51
the end is so funny I love it! 🙂
hi from Illinois!! R51 is my favorite!!!
Science live is fun
Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays to everyone celebrating other holidays this season!
Hey from Michigan!
Merry Christmas! I love these videos.
I Love R51!
Congratulations Laureli on your book!
Hi from Alabama!
I love Acellus.
hello from kansas!
Thank you so much for this awesome program!
Hello from Rhode Island!
This new course looks sooo fun!
I want to learn sign language!
Hey I’m from Kentucky
Merry Christmas to everyone of you from Gunner in South Carolina!
Hello from Michigan! Science is so awesome!
Hello, from Virginia and I hope every has a great Christmas!!
Hello from Texas
Happy holidays
I <3 Science Live!
Merry Christmas, Roger and team at Acellus!
Happy Holidays!
Super excited for this week’s episode 😍
Excited about ASL
Merry Christmas y’all from NC
Merry Christmas to the Acellus family and hope you have a happy new year!
happy holidays to you all
I want to learn ASL. Currently I am learning Spanish II.
hello from mississippi
Merry Christmas from Tennessee! Who loves Science?! I do!!!
Happy holidays everyone! Excited to watch the science live tonight.
Merry Christmas Eve from Rhode Island
R51 is the best!
I wish the entire Science Live team a very Happy Holidays!
Would love to learn sign language!
I love acellus live
Hello from Ohio! Merry Christmas!
Hello from Illinois!
Love it! – from illinois
Happy Holidays Everyone
Hello from Maryland!
From Indiana!!!!
Dint know that Edison did not invent the lightbulb, he only improved it. Just like John Fleming didn’t invent the vacuum tube. Made us think, just because something is already invented doesn’t mean we can improve it or make it work for another reason or invention.
I love R51 !
Happy Holidays from Nevada
Merry Christmas from Kentucky! So excited to watch!
I love my ASL class!!! I have a deaf neighbor and it’s been helping me communicate with them better!
Hello from New Jersey! Merry Christmas everyone!
Happy holidays from NC, and congratulations on making another course!
I love science live! It’s so cool!!!!
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I love R51, merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone
Hi im so excited to be here tonight.
I love ASL!
R51 is the BEST
Hi from South Carolina
Happy Holidays
I love doing ASL and can’t wait to do this new course!
The invention of the light bulb , showed that electricity could be harnessed in a different way .
Merry Christmas from Utah
Hi from Washington
Happy Holidays!
Can we talk more on the Edison effect??
Hello from Delaware, love these science lives!
Love this show. Hello, from NC.
Hi from San Antonio, TX
Here from NC. Thanks you, these videos inspire me so much
The ASL course looks awesome! My parents are both deaf, so this is a great thing that you guys added!
Love this video, Mia Williams from Virginia Beach
R51 is my favorite, I really love his sections.
Happy Holidays, cant wait to see what comes next this year coming up
I like Acellus
R51 is so cool!!!
An in depth ASL course is an amazing addition to Acellus. I think it’s amazing how they continue to evolve with education.
I love watching these videos every Wednesday . Don’t you guys like to watch them too?
r51 is my favorite!
Happy holidays! thankful for Thomas Edison
i love R51 tooo
The violin music in the back! Sorry R-51!
Without thomas edison, we probably wouldn’t have the modern technology we have today, happy holidays!
Happy Holidays!! Love your videos.
I love R51 so so so so so so so so so so so so MUCH!
Hi from Alabama
Happy science day everyone.
You are absolutely correct about every thing R51
R51 is the very best one!
It never occurred to me there was a A.I behind the touchscreen and while I was typing this I was staring intently at my keyboard to see the difference.
Edison really paved way for new Geniuses.
Hi from Texas!
We ALL love r51!
The Edison effect was interesting. I’ve learned a little about thomas Edison already, in 2nd grade.
My mom has saved some of her old cell phones before there were smart phones and we play with them like they are toys. It is hard to believe you couldn’t listen to music or watch YouTube on the phones back then!
I would love to learn sign language!
I love science live!!
Science live teaches me so much!!
Thomas Edison is my favorite historical figure to learn about!
I LOVE Scieence
R51 is soooooooo cool!
Happy Holidays! In what state does Hydrogen become a solid?
Science live is so good !!!!!
I really enjoyed learning more about Thomas Edison and the Edison Effect, exoplanets, and the Goldilocks Zone. It was really interesting to hear the story about how Steve Jobs’ team had to go from inventing a new tablet to inventing the iPhone, and how difficult it was to make a keyboard that actually worked.
My favorite quote from this episode was “Roger Billings sees tomorrow better than most”.
Always the best time watching science live!!
I liked learning about how NASA made a new telescope that can survey 100 times the area that the hubble telescope could get.
Happy holidays to R-51! He is very funny. I can’t wait to take the new Acellus ASL 2nd course.
Thanks Roger Billings.
R51 is amazing!
wow, so cool the Edison effect is a very cool concept. Happy holidays everyone and happy new years!
More schools should offer ASL. What another great addition!
I hope everyone has a vary happy holiday.
What are vacuum tubes and what do they do
sign language looks cool
I really liked how they explained how the new and old phones came to be, its really cool.
New ASL course that’s so cool congratulations!
I love science live!
I love science, and the sign language corse is cool
It is interesting how they designed the keyboard to predict what letter you are going to type next. This was a very cool science live!
I am excited for a new ASL class!
What grade do you have to be to take Sign Language? I am taking Spanish right now but want to take Sign Language.
Thank you for the science lives!
Happy Christmas Eve!
I’m so excited for another sign language course!
The AI technology being able to study cells faster is really cool! Can’t wait to see what else they can do with it to help people.
The Edison effect is so intresting
Love Thomas Edison
I remember those old phones!
My niece is hearing impaired so it’s really cool there is a class for ASL!
dr b is the best