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 »
Dr. Billings, what made you want to be a scientist?
Learning all of this stuff was so fun!
I didn’t know Thomas Edison invented all of these things, nice episode!
This was an interesting lesson.
So cool!!
I don’t know what we would do without science and all these great inventions
Thomas Edison and his inventions are really cool.
science is my favorite
I loved learning about the invention of a smart phone and how old phones used to be used.
This makes me realize how many important people have changed the world
Space facts are so interesting to me. I could learn about that all day.
This science live was so interesting! It’s crazy how much things have changed.
Edison is really interesting!
Learning about how phone evolved is so cool! Crazy how if he never thought of it life would be so different
Wow! Loved learning about the electrons and the Edison effect and the vacuum! Great episode !
I love getting to know more about our world!
Loved this Science Live!
I love seeing the evolution of things.
This is a very interesting Science Live. Thank you for all the work you all put into these educational episodes.
How many cameras does the Hubble have?
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.
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.