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 »
i liked the video, i like learning new things, i cant wait to learn more,
Another interesting video. Thanks.
i loved tobias segment this week about space and rockets
Isn’t space technically a void inhabited by stars and planets?
I love science live so much!
I can’t imagine computer being so big that’s crazy.
r51 was NOT a waste of time
Computer is so interesting and fun to learn about.
This was an awesome learning opportunity!
Thats insane computers were that big, now they are literally in youre pocket.
I love the electricity lives, please do more
quite a merry little episode this week.
Wow, I didn’t know. Science was a group of people that just grew up and make their ideas.
hi from Hawai’i
Crazy how far we have came with making computers smaller and more compact
so cool 😎 I love you R-51.
I am glad that computers are so much smaller now.
Amazing video! Computers are so interesting!
Me and my dad love watching science live together.
Always love R51!
Hi, my name is Keira. I really liked the part when they explained how a or gate, and not gate worked. l also enjoyed this episode.
I never knew computers were so big, crazy how they are small now but still made of 0 & 1.
Can’t wait to learn more!!
It’s amazing how big computers used to be, yet we have all that power in our pockets now, as small as a tv remote if not smaller
it is so crazy to see the evolution of computers and how they used huge and now are whatever size you’d like!
I like the twist at the start of the protégés part where they were just delivering pizza.
the coding was impressive!
wow computers are very complex
R51 isn’t and will never be a waste of time
This video was very interesting
R 51 is funny
these videos are always very interesting
I really can’t imagine computers being so big in 2026*
We have come along way.
NASA was planning to go to the Moon in 1960. The computers were very fragile, so it took them 9 years to fix the problem. In 1969, four days later, they finally got to the Moon.
2 gigawats of electricity can power 1.5 million homes! The average home takes about 3,000 ft^2! That would be roughly 4,500,000,000 square feet or 1,614.1528926 square miles! That’s bigger that some cities!
Computers are so interesting!
I loved the lord of the rings impression
I liked the Gollum impression from The Lord of the Rings
Computer technology has advanced so much in recent years.
me TOO
Me to lol🤣
I can’t imagine computers being so big! They’re so compact now and easy to take with you.
Florida is here
I wish I could be on science live I want to meet .D.r. Billings.
r51 is never a waste of time
It really isn’t ever a waste of time though.
No, never a waste of time.
I feel silly I thought it took like a year or something to go to the moon I didn’t know why they wanted to go for that long i guess 3 days sounds much better
This episode was very interesting.
Always love learning new things, hello from Cali!
Wow! Can’t wait for Acellus World!!
Nice photography joke lol. Great video!
Its really cool how far computers have come. They used to be super big and now they can be whatever size you what!
Hard to believe computers used to be so big.
These events look so neat! I hope to go one day!
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Old omputers look as big as the old testament my parents jad growing up..crazy to see how far they have come with technology and compacted everything.cool episodes
I like learning about computers
I love to watch sience live, it always has so interesting topics.
I wish I could go to these in real life!!!!
Great video topics! So hard to believe the amount of water it takes to cool a data center. Too bad space is super expensive right now but maybe the satellites will work and preserve our energy sources.
it was crazy to see how rockets are made
I love how inspiration science live is!
Love these every week!
Hi how are you and the video was good.
Watching from Georgia
david was great
I liked the rocket part because it was interesting.
Hello from Wyoming! How did they make the computers smaller?
I can’t believe there starting an educational event for Acellus World this year in Kansas City! I didn’t know that.
R51 is my favorite
me to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I Love science Live!
I love Acellus and am so happy I get to be part of science live!
Me to l also enjoy science.
Thanks for another amazing video! I can’t wait for next week!
I could never be a astronaut it is to stressful.
It is crazy how precise computers are.
It’s insane that back then they had big computers that were taller than me and now they are so much smaller that we can carry it in our hands.
I love learning new things on science lives
The computers were quite interesting.
Its crazy how the first computers were so big!
i love theses lives can’t wait for next weeks stream
i love science live!!!
I love watching these videos and learning new things.
AI is advanced
I really enjoy watching science live. Its interesting and keeps me interested!
Hi I like the science course
Thanks for the live from Oregon!
Love learning about the history of our science through these lives(:
Hello from Georgia!
I wonder how computers 50 years from now will be different than today’s computers. ???
Hi everyone from TX 🙂
These videos are the best.
Hi from Texas!
Around 5 million houses of power that’s a lot coming from just one data center insane.
This was really fascinating! Can’t wait for next week’s!
Learning about the computers is so interesting!
I loved the top gun reference.
I’m always so excited to watch science live!
These lives always teach me so much!
I really liked this episode David and Caleb were amazing.
thanks for this video it really intrigued me.
Yay! I love science live day!!
thank you for the videos to watch i really like them
It’s interesting how small computers have become.
I’m loving this.❤️❤️❤️
Cool beans!
never learned about this before but it was intresting cant wait for the next one
Loved learning about the vacuum tube.
Here from Indiana!
I love learning about new things on the lives!
I really enjoyed this continuation of describing how vacuum tubes helped to make modern day computers!
These videos are the best! The guys did a great job!
My mom was watching this with me and she said she remembers floppy disk but they were smaller so probably the one you invented.
Computers are so cool! I can’t believe how big the first one was. They are so tiny now!
AI work is definitely growing!
David and Caleb make it much more entertaining!
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R51 is so funny! I love the videos!
cool beans cool computer
Such a great live this week! Can’t wait to see more next week!!!!
I love the science live!
space is so cool
David and Caleb were great.
AI work is interesting!!
Interesting information in these videos that I would never learn otherwise!
Wow I never knew how majorly important that little vacuum tube was.
I leard early computers were so big and now they can be super tiny
Thank you for these videos every week I love how funny they are even though I have only been doing Acellus since last week I still love it. Thank you guys sooooooo much for having me I really appreciate it! Thank you guys soooooooooooooo much!
Great Science Live, I loved the computers part. 😀
Science live is the best!
Love Acellus!
I love watching these!!
Im always amazed by these episodes
I love space exploration!
love r-51 he is so cool and great
Having computing systems in space would be awesome!
I liked the part with Tobias.
Hi from Montana, what a great episode. I have a question for Dr. Tobias, could you do the invention of the animatronic? I think it is a cool invention and would love to learn how it was made and who made it. Can’t wait for next weeks episode.
If you are commenting and read my comment and think that you be interesting invention please put “Dr. Tobias animatronic” in your comment. Thank you and have an exciting day!
Comment I love these videos. Very interesting.
hello from Mississippi computer are great
I love learning about the computers
you guys explained binary very simple. you guys are the best.
This was not my favorite episode, couldn’t wrap my head around the concept
Happy to watch these every week!!!
My favorite part was when R51 was teaching us how to use vacuum tubes in computers with pixels on screens and other electronics.
What is the estimate amount of years for the ai to be in space?
HII love from texas
Loved learning how computers work today!
I love science live I learn so much every week! R51 and the protégés are keepers for life!
Great Live today!! One of the best so far in my opinion!
I love watching Science Live
I enjoyed learning about john mauchly
I love learning from the lives!!
What year did Armstrong land on the moon ?
Where will the Science fair take place?
I really enjoyed this episode.
Another interesting science live! Love these.
This was really cool!
I’m amazed at all the things that were needed to be made to make a functioning computer.
Science live was really interesting this week.
I loved David and Caleb’s video and the part of the delivery! Laughing my head off!
Can’t wait for the next
I love the video! Thank you for the info. Hello from nc!
This video was by far the best! It was hilarious! Hello from Kentucky! Excited for the next one!
that was so cool with the computer communication
Vacuum tubes are a very big thing now.
How much fuel does a rocket need to get to the moon?
Hello from Louisiana
Binary is awesome!
I liked learning about vacuum tube computing!
I loved this episode. David and Caleb were great!
I really liked the proteges video. It was one of my favs
I love Acellus and science.
Love learning new things ever week!
Never realized it was that hard to get to the moon.
Science live is very helpful.
Very interesting science live!
It was so cool to learn about the first computer!! I can’t wait for the next episode of Science Live!!
Science Live! I enjoyed this video today!
Science live is awesome!
I enjoy watching these!
This was a very interesting video. I love how you always learn more than just one subject. Thank you, and cant wait to see the next video.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were landing on the moon, how did they not know that they were going to land on rocks?
I love watching these lives! I always learn something new.
I love Acellus and science
I,m tired so I,m not going to be able to finish this live am a little sad but oh well I also have to Read am almost done and I went to finish . but so far this is interesting.
Nice! Does this mean laptop are made up of thousands of mini-switches? Also, what’s with the pizza?