Vacuum Tube Computing
February 4, 2026 • EPISODE 296
How did computers go from filling entire rooms to fitting in your hand? In this episode of Science LIVE, Dr. Roger Billings and the Protégés explore vacuum tube computing and the technology that launched the digital age. Hear stories about early machines, the Billings Computer, and floppy disks as Dr. Billings shares his firsthand experiences helping shape modern computing.
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 »
Your rocking that suit mr roger
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ABSOLUTLY! I’m an West Virginian as well, and love R51!
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science live is interesting
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Question for mr billings.
what inspired you to start this whole thing?
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What is a vaccum wave?
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How many mathematicians work on space data centers?
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wow, I never knew that about radio waves!
Getting to the moon sounds very hard I’d hate to go to the moon!
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I’m curious what happened with the quest for deep hole hydrogen
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How do astronauts breathe in a spaceship. Do they have a bunch of oxygen tanks?
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vacuum tubes are interesting
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Could it be possible to have a water-based cooling system in outer space? Would it freeze due to extremely low temperatures?
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Science Live is the best!
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When will the Coherer Kit be available?
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this is the best home school ever!
Also from Nevada here
the computer in space is cool.
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Going to the moon is very hard because you have to make sure the rocket won’t break down or power down because it won’t move to the spot they need to go.
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we love you
Glad they listened to the programmers. They could of had some bad issues with the Apollo mission.
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it’s cold here in Florida!
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Take it easy on Elon. One of the greatest minds of our time. 🙂
i really liked learning about the ways they got to the moon safely!
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I loved the space story!.
I really enjoyed hearing about the moon landing.
How large is the largest memory system
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how fo you feel about ai and the RAM shortage
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You guys are so cool
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I’m excited to see Roger billings again
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From North Carolina
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When was the last time” Houston we have a problem” quote actually said?
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And that’s why you don’t ignore woman!!!!!
What would happen if the computer was mid-run of a less important task and encountered a higher priority one? Would the less important one be immediately halted, or would it proceed at a slower pace with less power?
Hello from Hawaii
The story of how astronauts first prepped and got ready to go to the moon is super inspiring! I loved how they kept going even though they had several obstacles!
computer programs are so fascinating to understand and learn, the coding on a computer is complicated but the time and dedication to debug it is amazing.
Dr. Billings!!!
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To fix bugs in the weaved code, did they need to restart the entire piece or did they have a way to recode it?
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How does a v6 engine work?
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I thought Tobias was going to talk about Mrs. Kathrine Johnson.
*Hi I’m Mia from San Antonio Texas I didn’t know that there was water not in space that is super interesting I’d like to learn more about that.
Why have we not gone to the moon again?
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Coding is one of my favorite thing to do.
Rita from Hawthorne Nevada
I learned how Margaret Hamilton led her team developing on-board flight software for the Apollo mission.
the Moon landing was much more than I thought it was. Haha!
from Vermont!
AI is SOOOO AMAZING!!!
I can’t believe they wrote the whole code by hand!
Hello from Alabama.
I enjoyed Dr. Tobias’ lecture about how computer technology was an essential component of the Apollo 11 mission.
dr tobias’s story was cool
what is the biggest memory storage amount?
This is so amazing!!!!
I think it’s so cool that a computer can learn to prioritize!!! some humans can’t even prioritize correctly! Hello from New Jersey
How much fuel does a rocket need to take off and land on the moon?
I wonder how many issues could’ve caused the moon landing to abort!? Thats so crazy
Watching from MT
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Welcome Dr. Roger Billings
Science Live is really cool.
love the videos
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Wow it’s interesting to hear how computer are gradually improved.
It is absolutely fascinating and astonishing knowing more information about the landing on the moon!
For the least, I hope that AI doesn’t further decrease the low-middle class worker’s jobs. AI and robots could work the risky or dangerous jobs, for example: Nuclear power plants that involve high levels of radiated uranium for energy; given that the surroundings of that radiated uranium dust or uranium is protected with water, concrete, specific types of plastics, or steel could be used to protect us from any radiation as well as the robot using AI or controlled AI by human. I don’t know, something to think about I guess.
I really love that tie you wore!
That’s so cool I did not know that there was so many problems getting to the moon
Hi from Florida!
what if we never walked on the moon?
Why is there not a class about animals all over the world? Does Mr Billings like foxes? What is his favorite animal?
Will there be more coding classes released this year?
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Hiiii from Georgia!!
if they did not have the code and still landed would they be able to get back to earth
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Hi I’m from Philadelphia.
Good thing her kid did that
Hey from West Virginia, I loved Dr. Tobias’s part.
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that is crazy how they were still able to land very cool!
in recent years, has any nation tried to repeat the accomplishment of landing on the moon?
owsome tie!
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Nice tie!
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How would maintenance be performed on the AI in space?
How did we communicate with them on the moon before wifi?
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I love science live
Hello! I’m looking forward to see what DrB’s is going to talk about. I hope you have a blessed one!
nice tie!
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It would be scary to have a problem in space, what would you do if you lost most of the oxygen in the space ship?
I learn that Elon Musk and his company is wanting to send 100 satellites into space to get data.
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Hello form FL
it would’ve been nice to have a program like a task manager to manage all the applications that’s running