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 love science ❤️
What % of the universe have the world’s great scientists discovered?
I liked learning more about Thomas Edison! I didn’t know about the Edison Effect! Very cool!
Im starting to love science so much ! Happy new year 🎉
Thomas Edison was such a bright mind!
Wow the telescope is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I like how the telescope actually goes into space and takes pictures.
I love you guys
Love these live classes
Happy New Year and I really enjoyed this week’s live on the Edison Effect.
Thanks for teaching me something new! Amazing as always!!
Happy New years to every scientist!
I believe NASA is also working on the Artemis space program and hopefully land some people on the moon by the end of this decade.
Im glad to be back after break feels like a fresh start. I liked Dr. Tobias lesson about phones. I personally actually think that stylists are pretty cool honestly but also as much as I disagree with phones in general I am very glad I have one and am incredibly thankful 🙂
I wonder what manner of brilliant inventions Mr. Edison would create if he was alive today
We love Thomas Edison! 🙂
I wish I could’ve met Thomas Edison and learned things from him.
How exciting is the new ASL class. I am learning it at home. When will the class begin?
Happy New Years! Thank you for teaching me fun stuff about science every week!!
Happy Holiday to all the Acellus Staff, May we all have a grand new year!
Is the American Sign Language course going to be available for high schoolers? I say this because I am really interested in learning ASL. I love you too R51!
Happy New Years to everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend with family.
What modern technologies are based on the Edison Effect?
i hope everyone is having a good new year so far!!!!
We just built a house. I would love to have a telescope to enjoy the stars, galaxies, etc… with my family.
I learned about the new space telescope NASA just assembled.
Oh my gosh Edison! You were such a great inventor! I hope to be like him maybe in the future!
science is my favorite subject!
Thomas Edison was an extremely intelligent man
I learned that phones were made by engineers. Thomas Edison made the vacuum tube. The Hubble telescope would take about 435 pictures of the galaxy.
I am supper excited to hear more about American sign language.
R51 is hilarious
I love r51 and happy new year
I am excited for the new year of videos!
I love learning about Thomas Edison Dr. rogers mentor mentor.
This was a wonderful video my favorite part was learning about the history of how iphones were made.
Happy New Years Science Live!
😎 cool
I still can’t believe it is 2026
Thomas Edison was a great scientist.
Really cool and i liked the end a lot😂
Wow, science is incredible!
It is cool how the phone was made.
Edison was a MASTERMIND !!
I loved this weeks Science live! It was really interesting and I can’t wait to see what they have for us next week!!
I love nebulas!
I love these so much
When I saw the Nokia I instantly thought of the Nokia ringtone. Happy New Year.
Thomas Edison was a genius
Everything that Thomas Edison did is so interesting. We need more people like him!
Seeing this after watching a documentary on Thomas Edison, almost seems like fate!
I love science! Happy New year! Excited for the next video!
I liked the part about Thomas Edison the most
Happy New Years to everyone! Science is amazing
Edison and so many others made a big impact on today’s world, and r51 pls get well.
Science is neat
12/10/25 If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! 12/17/25 Congrats Laurelei Fox on your book!
Awesome as usual! Hope everyone had a Happy New Years!
It is cool to learn about how cell phones have changed, but also weird to think about the way they used to be!
Merry Christmas and happy new years to the amazing teachers and people that put together these science lives for us!
It would be so fascinating to have a conversation with someone like Thomas Edison and other wonderful scientists in today’s world. I enjoyed this science live.
I love Thomas Edison
I hope you have a good 2026
Wow, what a great Science Live! I’m so excited for the new ASL 2 course! Amazing to hear about the new NASA’s new telescope!
Happy new year! Science rocks!!
Thomas Edison is one of the coolest scientist that ever exists
how is r51
these are always so intriguing!
Thomas Edison was very smart and he contributed much to our world today. I love learning about him. Thank you for this live.
Thomas Edison was one of the best scientists!
Thomas Edison also invented the phonograph- first record player!!
What would we do without scientists?
I’m so excited for the new ASL 2 course!
I love watching science live!!
Happy New Year and thank you Dr. Billings It is such an honor to start the year off right with a nice science live, exploring such interesting topics like studying with Acellus Gold
So we’re just gonna gloss over the fact that r-51 created a literal TIME MACHINE?! HELLO?!
Also, to whoever’s scrolling through these comments, you’re beautiful, and the world is a better place with you in it. And if you’re going through anything right now, remember that God loves you sooo much and wants to help you. Have a great day, beautiful humannn :3
i hope your new years was amazing!!! I love watching these i feel like i get smarter every time.
this year went by so fast, Happy new year
Happy 2026
I enjoyed learning about old technology such as the development of the original iPhone.
Where would we be without Thomas Edison?
I wanted to say that I particularly enjoyed this Edison Science Live. Thanks!
Thomas Edison is so cool! So inspired!!
Happy New years to everyone.
I love science lives!! They are so fun
I hope everyone had an amazing holidays and New year, this science live was awesome as usual!
I loved learning about how the Apple keyboard came to be!
If the Edison Effect wouldn’t have happened, do you think this could’ve changed how we have lights, music, and techonolgy today? That’s crazy to think about.
I think people knew Thomas Edison was going to be something special, even as a small child.
Learning with Acellus is so fun.
love how this episode showed the Edison Effect wasnt just a weird side note it actually shaped modern electronics. Fascination stuff!
I love science live! so inspiring!
I liked the part about Edison.
Happy new year everyone!! Watching from LV! 🙂
Love Science Live. Happy New Year!
Why did apple use so many phones when introducing the new and improved phone?
The explanation about Thomas Edison and the Edison effect was so cool!
Happy New Year! Can’t wait to see all the new Science Lives in 2026!
SO AWESOME
Thomas Edison was one of my favorite Scientists!
Thomas Edison is a great scientist and smart guy!
Great video! Watching from New Jersey! I had no idea that Thomas Edison was not the first inventor of the light bulb!
Hello! First off, I’d like to begin by saying…, happy new year! I hope the Acellus Team had a wonderful break. I know that mine was lovely.
Being back at school has been nice, however. Dr. John’s segment on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was a reminder to me that learning is such a crucial part of living, and that every day there’s something new to learn. So, I thank Science Live for representing what it means to grow and comprehend the vastness of life and what we’ve created here on Earth.
The things that Edison invented are next level and I love it
Wow! Very interesting episode!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thanks for all the live’s this year, love the Thomas Edison stories!
Thomas Edison was a very clever man, sometimes I wish I could think like him.
Thomas Edison was a incredible person and is very interesting to learn about. Thank you!!!
I love that we get to learn about the science developments in the world here!!!
Science Live is awesome!
Happy new year everyone. Hope everyone has a great year!🤗😄
l love learning about science.
hey, you should make a vid on the progression of robots. that would be really cool.
My favorite part of this Science Live was the history of the IPhone.
I really liked learning about Thomas Edison.
When i grow up I want to be a scientist.
Happy new year!!
ill be finishing my Acellus courses this week and i was wondering if i could still take the sign language course
happy new year and that’s actually kinda crazy that NASA is launching something in 2037
Happy New Year to all at Acellus!
Thomas Edison is the best inventor ever.
Watching from Montana! Science is so interesting I love it.
That’s honestly really cool, I don’t usually look into these kinds of things. Thank you acellus for ya’lls hard work! and happy new year to all.
Thomas Edison was a great scientist, happy new years to every scientist
Watching from Idaho
Happy New Years!
Thomas Edison was so smart!
Cool!😎
I love these!
Favorite time of the week.
Hello, my name is Jacob. I especially liked the part about the invention of the first IPhone. Technology is truly interesting. Anyway, thank you for the knowledge.
Thomas Edison was an amazing inventor!! Happy new year!
I Love Acellus so much
Happy New Year Acellus!
Goodbye 2025 welcome 2026!
Edison’s inventions are a miracle!
Happy new year🎉
It’s crazy to think about how much the first iPhone changed the game for phone technology. I’m sure most people already know how important the iPhone was, but it’s interesting that it came down to one team member who solve the keyboard problem before they could successfully go forward with the groundbreaking technology.
I would just like to say thank you to Dr. Billings and everything you’ve done with Acellus. I’ve learned so much and I really appreciate it. God Bless you Dr. Billings and everybody else apart of the Acellus family. 🤗💜✝
Science live is the best!!!
I love science it’s really fun to learn all the new things .
WOW! I did not know that.
Thank you, for the science live!
Happy New years everyone! and keep on sciencing
Eli is very interested in the possibility of sending messages back in time. Who knows, it might be a college project in the future.
This was an AMAZING class thank you!!
I love watching these! Always learning something new!
So glad to be back and I hope every one had a merry Christmas and happy new year
I always enjoy learning about Thomas Edison! Happy New Year everybody!
I am very grateful for Thomas Edison.
#GOATEDBILLINGS
Who else loves Breakthrough Moments in Science?
NASA getting a new present like that is pretty cool, wonder if space is just full of stars and planets or if there’s also something out there.
Thanks for another good episode! I loved watching Science Live.
I LOVE SCIENCE
Who made the very first lightbulb?
Thomas Edison is very smart. He was a great scientist.
This is truly inspiring! Happy New Years!
I love how you make the science lives fun and interesting and new every week!
Quite the interesting watch. I didn’t know that Dr. Billing’s mentor was mentored by Edison himself, so that’s pretty neat.
Thomas Edison was so smart it still shocks me to this day.
I would love to learn ASL!.😍
Happy New Year to all Acellus workers and scientist!
I am going to be a scientist when i grow up.
Science live is the best!!
NOTHING BETTER THAN STARTING MY DAY OFF WITH SCIENCE LIVE.
Thomas Edison was a genius!! Thanks for this Science Live!
Happy new years everyone!!!!! <3
Why can’t we get humans on mars yet?
Very COOL! Happy new year i hope you have the best new year!!!
science rocks!
I love how many thing we can learn about during science live!!! So amazing as always!
It is quite interesting the difference between a new high resolution telescope and the previous telescopes we were using. The phones back then were more of tool compared to what they are today. It’s very interesting to see how we develop technology over the years.
Poor R 51…..
Happy new years everyone i hope ya’ll have a scientific year!
Happy New Year from Virginia, USA! I love Pajet Monet.^^
science is cool, being smart is the new fashion! Edison is an inspiration