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 »
Happy New Year from NC!!
Loved learning about the Edison Effect.
It’s interesting how much of an impact the Edison effect has made on what we know today
𝔀𝓸𝔀 𝓼𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽’𝓼 𝓱𝓸𝔀 𝓶𝔂 𝓴𝓮𝔂𝓫𝓸𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭 . 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓯𝓾𝓷𝓷𝔂 𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓻𝔂 𝓳𝓸𝓴𝓮!
Happy New year’s to everyone!!!!!!❤️😄
I want to invent something that will change the world forever!
Happy New year R51
Thanks for making me like science
I liked to hear that there will be ASL, but how do you get it as a class
Hello from Delaware!
A goodbye to 2025, and an exciting hello to 2026! happy new year everyone!
I LOVE LEARING ABOUT SCIENCE AND IT’S SO COOL
Thomas Edison was super smart when it come to all the science stuff it’s really interesting
I loved this show. It was funny and cool.
R51’s invention was really cool
I like R 51 🙂
I loved learning about science, I want to be a scientist one day.
Science live is so fun! Happy New Years from Virginia! Thomas Edison was pretty smart!
Science is so cool I wanna be a scientist when I grow up!
happy new year
Happy new years cant wait for the new episodes!
Happy New Years to everyone!!!
So interesting!!! Thomas Edison is such a good scientist.
what’s your favorite thomas edison discovery?
Wow! another great year with science live!
Happy New Year! Science is my favorite!
I loved the joke about a chemist’s favorite Christmas song! “Oh, Chemistry, Oh Chemistry” was GENIUS!!!!
I want to invent things like Thomas Edison did!
HAPPY NEW YEARSS!!!! Awesome first science live of the year!
Happy New Year! What cool videos are we going to learn about this year? Thomas Edison is my favorite inventor/scientist!
Science Live is the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssstttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy New Year!
So glad to be jumping back into school after break
I love all the facts that I learn from Science Live!!!!❤️👨🚀👨🚀❤️
I loveeeee! the showw! 🙂
Thomas Edison was a smart guy!
Cell phones have changed alot! Happy New Year!
Happy new year from Vietnam!
I cant believe how these people can go from nothing to amazing creations!
I love watching the science live videos they’re always so interesting and you guys make everything so easy to understand .
Thomas Edison was amazing!
Science is fun!
Happy new year everybody!
Thank you Thomas Edison!
Excited to be back after my holiday break! My mom showed me the satellites that orbit the earth that you can see at night, space is so cool.
hope everyone has an amazing year
Wow that is cool about the Apple phone
ciao from New Hampshire!
Every episode of science live inspires me especially this one
I am excited to take both sign language courses now!
Thomas Edison was an amazing scientist!
I love Science!!!
Happy late new years everyone, let’s look forward to a new year of possibilities!
Thomas Edison, pioneer! Love science
I like the 🆕 NASA telescope 🔭
It’s exciting to see what new innovative ways they take pictures of space.
Science is my favorite 🤩 thing of all subjects📕📓📚📖📔
Thomas Edison is the best inventor ever. I wish I would be like him in the future.
I am so excited to watch science live! Good morning and Happy holidays.
Science is more interesting than I thought it was
This is why my grandpa called them “dumb phones”. It is amazing to see how all manmade creations have advanced over time. Tobias is right, things need to break to reveal a “breakthrough”. It also shows how having perseverance in your ideas or goals can lead to some amazing inventions.
Happy new years Roger, I enjoyed this episode like always I cant wait for the next one.
Happy New Years to everyone!
Thomas Edison was a brilliant inventor. His invention of the light bulb changed the world.
The world as we know it today would not be the same without Thomas Edison.
The difference between past and current technology is amazing!
Y’know Dr. Billings is so cool, he never fails to give us new information every video.
awesome video roger billings
happy Holidays Acellus !!!
I learned about the Edison Effect and thought it was cool how it led to modern electronics.
This really was a great lesson ! Happy new year!:)
Happy New years everyone. Tuning in from Nebraska.
Happy new year from Georgia. Love these science lessons.
Edison was a great scientist! I love this science live!!
Happy New Year’s to everyone
I always thought Edison invented the bulb. Very interesting!
The way cell phones and other technology have changed to their forms today is incredible .
That new class is going to be so cool, can’t wait!!
Science live rocks
Happy new year! Interesting topics every week!
I love science, whenever I went to public school my science teacher always made class so fun but I love it even more now that I do Acellus!
Scientists are the superheroes of discovery!
I wonder exactly how many engineers it took to create the Iphone.
I hope everyone had a great New Year!
I liked watching about Thomas Edison.
Looking forward to a New Year of Science Live!
I forgot how much I love this
Excited for 2026 with Acellus!!!
I can’t wait to see what we learn about in 2026. Happy new year.
Will this new telescope help scientists descover new areas of our galaxy?
I thought it was weird that back then with pen touch screens, you had to touch really hard because the devices were pressured for the type
Thomas Edison was so smart and ahead of his time
I think it is amazing all of the things Thomas Edison accomplished.
These Science Lives encouraged me to do better in Science class! Happy New Year!
I love science live
Thank you, Dr. Billings, for breaking down the Edison Effect. It’s interesting to see how underdog discoveries can at times have more of an impact.
Happy new years can’t wait to spend 2026 on Acellus
I’m so glad that they now have a second sign language course! I am currently taking the first course and loving it!!
This is super interesting! Thomas Edison was really smart! Happy new year!
Happy New Year everyone!!! I wish everyone a good year:) good luck with everything!! #sciencelive is GREAT!!!
Science is so cool! Happy new years.
these videos are hilarious! I love them so much!
I had never heard his name before. But man Thomas Edison seemed so smart, truly deserved more reconizition as an inventor!
are time machines possible?
Happyyy new year!!!!🥳🎉. To everyone around the world.
I love learning new things!
Hi from texas and happy new years. I hope everyones 2026 is amazing and i cant wait for all the new exciting science lives to come.
Thank you for another great Science Live! Happy New Year to everyone!
happy New Year’s Eve I love science lives stay safe!
Happy New Year. Oh chemistry oh chemistry.
These videos are my fav part of the week, I loved this one the most!
Thomas Edison was brilliant. I love learning about his work!
I love science Live and I love Acellus World. 🌍🤩
The shift in technology over the years is fascinating! Happy new year!
New year, new opportunities. I hope everyone has a great year and even better breakthroughs. Keep learning everyone there is no such thing as too much knowledge.
crazy how much work had to go into the iphone, it’s so complex 🙂
Wow, Thomas Edison blows my mind, and forever will!!! Happy New Year to everybody at Acellus!!
It is so interesting to think that Thomas Edison was so smart and he did not even have all the technology that we do today and a lot of it is thanks to him! Also Happy New Year’s!!!
The NASA telescope was so fun to learn about. Happy New Year.
Love learning on how Thomas Edison paved paths for other inventors to which they were able to make a breakthrough with their own invention.
Science Live is an amazing way to learn new things.
I LOVE SCIENCE! It’s so cool to learn about the world around us and how great inventors create things that we use every day without even realizing what it took to make them. Science Live always has awesome facts! Thanks to all those who help make Science Live!
R51 is so funny
Thomas Edison was such a brilliant man!
Happy new years from NC!
One day I wanna invent things just like Thomas Edison did! It’s my dream job!
Did Thomas Edison create anything else besides the light bulb?
When was the touch on screen evented
I really enjoy hearing about Thomas Edison. Happy New Years everyone!
I love watching science live!!
I love Acellus!
I like his discovery of the lightbulb!
Science live is so cool
Amazing video thank you for sharing such valuable information.
Excited to spend the New Year with Acellus!
I LOVE this
cool video love science!!
Happy New Years everyone! I hope we can learn more stuff this year in 2026!
Happy New years to every one who reads this so cool
Happy New Years! Such a cool topic!!
Thomas Edison, such an incredible individual, his feats will never be overlooked.
This was soo good!
Love the program and love the videos
Thomas Edison is so interesting!
I love chemistry!
Happy new year 😀 (I’m a little late)
greetings from wyoming. thanks for the live
Its crazy to think about how one person can pave way for other useful inventions
Happy new year i love science !!
Happy New Year fellas!!
Yay science live!!!!!!!!
Thomas Edison was so cool and very smart!
I thought that this was pretty fascinating!
Happy late new year from Zalea! It’s soooo crazy to think that it is 2026 already. Science is so cool always look forward to watching these videos!
Is the Eddison effect also the discovery of how magnets work?
This is good to learn, but iIwanted to know what other things did Thomas Edison do?
First video of the new year!
I would like to hear more about Science Live for credit? How will that work?
thanks for the lesson and happy new years Dr billings
This was a great video!
That is so cool happy new years everybody
Science is a 💥!
Dr. Billings is a very interesting person that has put together a awesome hydrogen product hopefully we can see it continue so we can protect the environment. Thank you for such a wonderful presentation.
I L O V E S C I E N CE LIVE❤️❤️❤️🆒🆒🆒
Science is so cool, I want to look into space with a telescope.
i love science live so much
If Thomas Edison wasn’t the one to invent the Light bulb who do you think would have?
I love this podcast so much!!!
Never knew Thomas Edison invented more than just the light bulb! You learn something new everyday!
Science is definitely one of my favorite classes.
How do electromagnets work n the real world
I really enjoyed learning about the Edison Effect. & the R51 videos are always my favorite. I look forward to them at the end of the videos
How do electromagnets work in the real world
Happy first Science Live of the New Year.
How do electromagnets work in the real world
Science Live always reminds me of how important science is and how much scientists learn in a single day.