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 »
Thomas Edison was a great inventor. The Edison Effect is fascinating.
Its interesting to see how much people struggled with the ipod in order to make it work perfectly. Even today, the smartphones are the product of hard work over the past years
HAPPY NEW YEAR I LOVE ACELLUS
I loved this episode!
Learning about space, nebulas and the Edison Effect was interesting!
It is interesting to think about what the world would be like if certain people did not exist or invent certain things.
Seriously, what if we never had any source of light besides the sun?
dude R 15 was so funny, this was a great episode.
I really liked this Science live
Hi i’m summer and i live in okc and I love science live and thank you
I liked when Roger Billings put his glasses on and said he could see the students. And seeing the old cell phones was neat too.
So cool how much phones have evolved from the early 2000s
The Telegraph thing was cool.
Thomas Edison is really cool!
I thought it was very interesting wehn you talked about the invention of a smart phone and how old phones used to be!
This might be my favorite one, Amazing live!
Loved learning about Thomas Edison and the experiments he did!
Hi!!!!! Watching from NC!!!! Absolutely love science LIVE!!. Please reply, if you love acellus.
Science live is awesome.
It seems there’s a lot that I didn’t know about Thomas Edison!
Hi from tennessee! I learned so much from this live
Thomas Edison was such an interesting person!
I am learning about open and closed circuits right now.
Power line volts – wow, they carry 1 million volts.
I am very interested that the very phone I am using took that much time to invent. It is also very interesting that the NASA telescope was much more advanced than the Hubble Space Telescope. I thought that the Hubble telescope was the only telescope that was sent to space. I’m very excited for the next episode of Science L!VE.
I love r-51
Thomas Edison is great! learned alot today from science live!
I can’t wait to try out the new course, ASL 2. I really like learning from Ms. Donnie.
Thomas Edison is one of my favorite inventors that I look up to and I find his inventions very interesting.
Hello from North Carolina!!!
My favorite time of the week!
ASL class sounds fun
I did not realize Edison made the vacume tube
This science live was awesome!
I love how much you can do and learn from science
Are all of the telescopes in space and connected to a computer to show pictures?
The telescope is super cool. I can’t wait to see the images.
Edison’s story keeps getting more interesting.
It was interesting to learn about Edison and his inventions. He was a pioneer of technology, even though some of his inspiration was not entirely genuine. Do you think we will ever have another inventor as great as Edison?
What if Thomas Edison’s research hadn’t helped with inventions other than the lightbulb, what would we lack today?
Happy New Year! Can’t wait for all the great lessons we’re going to learn in 2026!
science lives are the best!!
R-51 is so funny! Thankful for the information
Dr Billings always gives useful information to learn
I love Edison and Happy New Year!
Hi from NV!! I think these lives are pretty cool
Thomas Edison was very smart and a great science engineer.
This live was really cool!
best part of the week!
Hello from Texas
Science live is the best I love that there’s lives every Wednesday!!!
Hello from Mississippi. I love learning with acellus
Interesting video – New AI technology that will help us solve certain sickness is exciting, Also, new telescope technology is very interesting and exciting. Excited to see when it launches in 2027.
I love this! It’s so creative! Thank you Dr. Roger Billings.
loved this!!!
I learned a lot for my first time seeing one of his lectures
My first time doing acellus, learned a lot from this science live!
Learned a lot by science live!
the live was good
hiii from tx!! I really engoyed the life from today
Hello from Texas!
Hi from Texas!
This is my first time entering the live but I really enjoyed the visuals of the science live. I loved that since I’m a more visual person , we’re able to see what they were explaining. My little siblings actually sat down with me because they were interested as well! Great live!
Hello from Kentucky! R-51 is really funny! and I enjoyed the video!
Great episode!
Thank you so much for this one I loved it!
Hello from Florida!
I like science because you can learn a lot about it.
It was really interesting that Tomas Edison made the vacuum tub
Thank you for sharing all this great information with us!
Always learn something new on these. Thank you!
I love how much I learn on here
wow interesting
I enjoyed learning about the Edison effect.
Happy New Years to everyone!! I enjoyed learning more about Thomas Edison, great live!
Nice
really thats awsome
You know what they say you learn something new every day.
I genuinely love Acellus so much. It is so friendly and entertaining.
Area 51 is my favorite
Today was my first video lecture, and it was very interesting to learn about the Edison Effect.
Super informative! Thanks for these videos they teach me something new every week.
Happy 2025! I hope everyone had a great year!
I once read that Thomas Edison was a homeschool student. It’s awesome to know that some great inventors were also in homeschool programs, and became great contributors to society.
this was cool learning about the Edison effect
hiiii from TX
Hi Happy New Year from Kansas City, Mo.
science is my fav subject
This episode on the edison effect was really awesome!! ty DR. B for all of ur inspiring khowledge you share with us.
Trying and failing so many times must have been exhausting. It must have been hard to keep going, but it paid off in the end.
Hope everyone at Acellus had an awesome holiday!
Hi from nc
I think its cool on how far technology has come for us to find new things in space
Happy New years hope all of yall’s year is great
happy new year!!!
that episode was really good
I wish i was in science live!
I really like Tobias. His section is my favorite.
I love you guys!
I love science happy new year to all of you
Super informative! Thanks for these videos they teach me something new every week.
Happy new years from kentucky!!!
Thank you for the daily knowledge Mr. Billings! I appreciate your effort and look forward to your next installment of Science Live.
Happy New Years to all Scientists.
Happy New Years from Mississippi
science is so cool
Happy 2026!!
I loved learning about Thomas Edison.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE ACELLUS!!!!!!!
Happy New Years everyone!! I hope that your all having an amazing year so far.
The science facts are always interesting to learn about! happy new years.
Happy New Year from Mississippi everyone!
I am lily I wanted to say i always love your lives
Happy New years everyone!!!
Happy New Year!! I love Science Live!
science is so cool!
i love science so much happy new year
Happy New Year!
What’s the best university to go to?
Do you think we will ever be able to travel across space, what about black holes?
Happy new year!!!!!
Thomas Edison really did change the world!
NASA’s getting a new space telescope for Christmas🙌🙌
Happy 2026 from Ohio.
much love from TN!
I love Science!
SCIENCE LIVE!!!!!
This is so AMAZING!!
Learning about space is so cool!
happy late new years. thank you for always bringing us stuff that we can love. i love your lives!!!
hello from ohio!
Science is truly amazing!
this makes me love science!
I love science live! Happy new year!
I am here! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New years!!
Loved learning about the Edison effect! Happy New Year 2026
Wow! Edison was ahead of his time
Thomas Edison was very smart. I want to be smart like him
Merry Christmas Acellus team!
Hello from North Carolina !
Inventions like the cellphone are absolutely incredible. What would we do without science?
Could you explain the definition of “exoplanet”? The word I heard is pretty unfamiliar, but I’d like to know the definition of exoplanet. Is it a different kind of planet in the solar system?
Cool facts, Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!
Happy New Years ..I really love this show ..can’t wait to see what will be on it this year YAY !!!
Happy to be back from holiday! Happy New Year everyone!
I am so excited science live is back!!!
Edison was very smart and talented person
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!
The science behind taking pictures of planets is so incredible.
That is soooo cool how NASA keeps coming up with better and better technology. I can’t believe how much better they have already made it.
Happy Holidays! This live was great!
Science lives are so amazing!!!
Loved learning about Thomas Eddison, thanks for another great science live!
Science is my favorite subject!
Happy New Year from North Carolina
Every Science Lives are so fascinating!
I love this !!!
How many inventions did Thomas Edison have?
Happy Science live! Ready to learn more science!
Love learning!
I watched this with my brother! Happy New Year!!
Science lives are the highlight of my day!
How do electrons flow through the battery?
Thank you and Happy New Year!
I’ll never understand how scientists things of the things they do. They are truly intelligent.
Happy New Year to Acellus team and everyone!
I love learning from science live!
Such a good episode!
Glad to finally see an episode all about and honoring Thomas Edison!
How could did he measure the current of the light bulb ?
Thomas Edison did some awesome things! Loved today’s live!!
science lives teach so much
I like how the Iphone was made
acellus is the best
I’m really glad that they were able to make a touch screen because it makes it easier.
Is the ASL available for everyone and how do you get?
The part when he was talking about making the keyboard work was a great example of teamwork
I want to be a scientist someday. Learning about the Edison Effect was cool.
Happy New Year! Also, so cool to hear about what the new telescope may be able to do!
Science is my favorite!