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 »
Happy Valentines Day everyone!
Great Science Live Episode. I like how it has changed over time.
i enjoyed learning the part about the moon
Loved the mission to the moon, would love to hear more!
I love the mission to the moon part
I find vacuum computing very interesting
i love the moon
You explain this so well.
I like learning about the space missions. I always watch the rockets launch with my family. Happy Valentine’s Day!
i love the streams and the mission to the moon
I really enjoyed this. Watching from Florida!
I enjoyed what this weeks topic was about, science live is the best.
Have a happy valentine’s day acellus teachers.
What metal would you use to make a base on the moon
I loved the part about the mission to the moon!
It is very interesting to learn how everything started the computer. It’s hard to believe that technology has advanced so much and computing devices keep getting smaller.
In this episode, I learned about how Apollo 1 was accomplished, and that the codes and systems abourd the rocket and lander were woven into place.
I truly enjoy watching science live. There is a lot of information worth learning on here and I appreciate those making an effort to make this possible for students.
I heard about the spacex merger. You think they can pull off getting the data centers in space?
Learning about the moon was so amazing and fun!
WOw Science Live is so fun!
Science live was great can’t wait to watch another episode of science live
I love science live
The binary code stuff was cool.
I thought that learning about vacuum tubes and radio waves was interesting. The moon mission was also fun to learn about.
how can a Lemon be a batterie
i enjoyed learning about the vacuum tube!
Computer science is so interesting
That was amazing, the mission to the moon is so cool to learn about.
Why were vacuum tube computers so big compared to today’s computers?
Hello from North Carolina!!
Science live is the best.
I enjoyed learning about the mission to the moon!
I was wonderful video and I learn about the moon. I learn that in 1950s they realized that it was going to be hard to fly the rocket ship.
I want to visit NASA the next time we go to Houston to see my family.
The progression of technology and how it developed is very interesting.
It’s really incredible what one new invention/technology leads to new and even greater idea!
the mission to the moon was a really good part
I love when they talk about space!
I liked learning about how AI is expanding and evolving to become better for the world
How would modern day computers look if we never had vaccuum tube computers in the evolution of computers?
science is a master piece
The moon part was very fun.
i love the streams good job keep going
I enjoyed learning about the mission to the moon.
the moon mission was awesome!
I love learning about computing!
That moon story is pretty fascinating, though I wonder what might have happened if the first time a “mis-flip” happened on the real mission.
I love learning about rocketry, especially old rocketry.
I’ve seen a floppy disk in pictures before but never in person.
I didn’t know they had to weave to make code that seems very difficult
So cool how far computers have come!
Space is a very fascinating place!
The amount of energy and water AI uses is insane!
Science live is so cool!
I thought that dart board example about launching a spaceship to the moon was cool.
This was an interesting Science Live – I enjoyed learning about the moon. I used to live in Florida and watched rockets launch when I was a little girl.
i love science live, i love learning about new things every live!
Vacuum tubes are so amazing
Computer do seem really complicated but also really interesting to learn.
Hello from NY!
i love learning about the mission to the moon and the binary code!
Hey. This video was really cool! Thank you for making these Dr.B. Also, I love learning history of things like this.
The mission to the moon was really cool.
The mission to the moon segment was very interesting! I’m exited for the next Science Live!
I really enjoyed “Breakthrough moments in science” this week!
in hiw much times did they land on the moon?loved this episode
Most would agree that’s a dramatic way to deliver pizza, haha!
Woah! Thats so inspiring!
Have a good Valentine’s Day!
A very interesting episode indeed.
I still can’t believe that computers run exclusively on 1s and 0s!
Hi from Montana!!
Really enjoyed the part about the moon and found it amazing to see how far computers have come!
What does vacuum tube look like?
THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS WAS VERY HELPFUL
I love learning new things on science live!
So intresting to see how computers have changed! Thank you.
Would this way of using AI come with any drawbacks?
The mission to the moon is so intriguing, thank y’all for telling us about it!
I loved hearing about the moon mission. the moon always interested me a lot.
I loved this episode .
How maney satalights can fit in the rocket ?
We neeeeeeeeed Dr. Tobias to do the gollum voice again!
Great lesson i enjoyed you talking about how complex computers are!
This is one of my favorites.
Emma here from wv!
I bet being able to land on the moon is the coolest thing!
I would love to go on a mission to the moon.
thank you for this lesson dr billings!!!
This Science Live was very interesting!
does any of you guys know when the meet up is for acellus thing?
I just learned about ai! I think it’s really fascinating that it takes so much space for them to be able to run. I never knew that before!
This was a great science live.
I want to learn more about the moon!
So fascinating how certain technology evolved over time.
Because of this new discovery to convert carbon dioxide to power hydrogen fuel cells, is this a more efficient, conservative, and healthier method to apply for hydrogen technology?
you should do the golem voice again
I was thinking it was war and not pizza delivery
I liked this Science live and learning about the mission to the moon.
I love learning about all of the science and technology that went into the moon missions! I think it is such a cool topic, and I love space!
I have learned a lot from Science Live
I think it’s cool how Margaret Hamilton was a young engineer from the MIT .
This was so great thank you!
Have they gotten close to the moon again?
Thank you Science Live! Space is so fun to learn about!
I wonder what would’ve happened if they actually implemented the system that Margaret suggested immediately.
It was very interesting today I love learning about vacuum tube computer
There has been a lot of cool things I have learned through Science Live.
I love science live! I always look forward to it every week!
this is the best part of my week
How much power would a data center take to run for an entire year? Happy Valentine’s Day!
This class was awsome.
That was so interesting! Can’t wait till next week!
Sorry for not commenting until now, it was my birthday and i was busy. I really liked the Breakthroughs in Science section about how they got apollo 11 to the moon. I also liked the Roger Billings part about computers and their code.
I didn’t know that it was that hard to get to the moon.
I love watching science live every week! What they talk about is always interesting!
this was very interesting how expensive it was to run tube computing back in the day
Are Vacuum Tubes sill used today?
I loved the mission to the moon!
I would love to know how to spell my name in binary !
I liked the part where they want to the moon
This episode was super cool!
It was interesting learning about rockets, and the moon. Now I want to go there.
I didn’t know that they had to launch 1,000,000 satellites.
I like space it is so cool to learn about space
I like learning about the mission to the moon.
Happy Valentines Day and thanks for all you guys do for us!
I enjoyed learning about the mission of the moon.
Super cool live I loved the part about the moon. Also happy early Valentine’s Day!!
The mission to the moon was so cool!
Happy Valentine’s to Acellus!
do you think that there is more energy in space than on earth? i liked learning about the mission to the moon!
The moon mission was cool
Its so cool how nasa has so many new technology its seems like the future!
I think space is cool
that is crazy how much energy AI 🤖 is using. What is the best AI app?
Tobias is an excellent story teller. I’m happy they let her write the system to prioritize or the Apollo mission would have been a big mess.
yeah i use starlink
I always like the videos here
How do rockets fly? Can they be electric like some cars?
I love the part about the mission to the moon!
Science lives are so fun and interesting.
I really liked the breakthroughs in science part about how they got apollo 11 to the moon. I also liked the Roger Billings section about computers and their code.
I love learning about space travel! So learning about the mission to the moon was cool.
Can you communicate with people in space?
I liked watching the video it was really interesting
I think its crazy how much energy is used for cooling for AI servers and I think it’s a great idea for these servers to be put in space because even though it expensive it would save so much money in cooling and energy.
Space is so cool
thank you for making learning fun
Super interesting! Was so fun to learn about the missions in space.
Is AI bad for our environment because of how much energy it uses?
Getting to the moon is very hard. they have to aim not exactly at it. Nasa developed a computor to navigate the rocket to the moon. Margret Hamilton a big role in fixing systems to land on the moon.
Happy Valentines! Thank you for this amazing live!
Mission to the moon was very cool
I ove learning more about the moon
How much water do you need to make sure the AI servers dose not over heat?
This is so interesting! Especially about the mission to the moon!
Hi from Delaware
Listening to Acellus lives, I love the science breakthroughs teaching me how difficult things like moon landing’s work.
I love space and the moon! ❤️
i love space and AI. very interesting
Interesting they used them in the trip to the moon
I enjoyed learning about the mission to the moon.
It was fun learning about rocets, and the model k. Now I want to go to the moon.
i loved learning about computing! Happy valentines !!!
I find talking about adding new satellites in space is really interesting.
We saw clips from Acellus World.
I learned so much thank you
I’m sorry I didn’t watch it all the way through so can you tell me more about it?
I liked the part about the mission to the moon.
Great live as always! Keep up this amazing work.
Ai is not very good although sometimes it helps
Is AI bad for our environment because of how much energy it uses?
Happy valentines everyone! I love Science LIVE!
Happy valentines and thank you.
I love science live ❤️
I like learning about coding
I liked the binary code, because I’m thinking about going into coding.
Have a good valentines day thank you!!
Love all of the talks and like I said before the new talk is great.
How often has accidently pressing things lead to new discovers and what is the must absurd case of it?
I think the example of what is like to actually land on the moon helps illustrate just how incredible the specific details of the landing truly are.
do you think there’s more energy in space than there is on earth happy Valentine’s Day everyone
we looked up a picture of the computer you made
Why didn’t they just listen to Margaret and put the system in the first time?