How My Training As An Inventioneer Altered Ethernet
Everyone said it was impossible. Engineers laughed and called it ‘The Billings Folly’ — as a joke. Then the entire internet adopted it, and now the whole world uses it.
Dr. Roger Billings tells the inside story of how full duplex gigabit Ethernet was invented, rejected at IEEE standards meetings, and eventually became the global standard behind modern internet, streaming video, and AI.
Discover the inventions that made it possible — the concentrator, the equalizer circuit, and the balanced hybrid circuit — and hear what happened when Ron Crane, the father of Ethernet himself, stepped in to defend it.
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 »
this weeks science live was so interesting
R51 is soo funny! My network doesn’t do that! Thank you all for sharing
How My Training As An Inventioneer Altered Ethernet
It was really inspiring that the IEEE and others may not have followed the vision, but he made the prototype and showed it was possible and with no collision! That’s pretty amazing.
what an amazing video!!
What a lovely discussion on not only the progress of the Ethernet, but the idea of perserverance even when everyone doubts you.
I can’t wait for the next one
Why is the order of people different than it was?
r51 makes me laugh
The cardboard cutout could talk?! And for the question “What’s your favorite color” I would have just said “Yes”.
The Ethernet’s really interesting to learn about
This science life was great
I’m going to cry when I graduate, because I’ll never see these videos again.
Hi Jakeh! Guess what?! When you graduate, you can still watch Science Live at sciencelive.com! 🤩
Always love science live! I was flabbergasted by the the part about the IEEE and how they thought your idea wouldn’t work even after you showed them!
I really enjoyed watching this! Can’t wait for the next science live!
this video was so intresting i loved every second of it
That’s so cool! I hope I can do something like that one day!
I loved this video it was very interesting
I love science live! Why did they use barb wire instead of normal wire?
I want to be a inventor when I’m older
great job to the staff that produce these videos.
when will r51 stop being so crazy?
I didn’t know Dr billings was that famous
Is the Sciencelive thing that responds to people’s comments an AI model?
Why did the video stop when they pinched the wire?
Additionally, Ethernet is much faster than Wi-Fi and cellular connections, as each device is connected to its own cable. This will not, say, slow the Wi-Fi down because multiple devices are using it.
Wow if everytime someone sent something at the same time and it would break that must have been unbearable
this was an amazing video I loved learning about collision!
amazing as always!
great live this week
learning is so much fun
I love watching these videos they all was want me to learn more!
Loved this science live definitely a favorite!!!
This was a very interesting episode, as I use Ethernet every day. Ethernet can be useful in the homes of those with heart arrhythmias (some arrhythmias can become aggravated by the radio frequencies utilized by Wi-Fi routers and cellular connections) as the electromagnetic frequencies are contained inside shielded cables as opposed to floating around in the air
todays science live was amazing
Ethernet, so interesting!
I loved this video.
i love learning.
I love how helpful you are with learning, you make it so much easier.
curious on what the next one is gonna be about now.
I liked when R-51 explained how a network works.
I really liked this science live it was cool!
Love to see when hard work pays off!
This weeks lesson was very interesting
Great Science live as always!
I enjoyed the science live today, the internet is so interesting!
it is so cool how y’all know all this and I love the story’s that you share it is so fun and thank you for um being teachers and y’all are so sweet and nice thank you
I thought that the researchers that invited the shots to help the deaf was intelligent.
I love science live so much cause i learn so much every time.
learned so much cant wait for the next viedo,
love this but where do you record the lives at and where did he go to school
This is really interesting, because FIFO is also used in restaurants, with ingredients.
Its interesting seeing how ethernet works.
I would love to try and invent items.
I really love science live and the fun time it brings with every watch!!
I love tobias he helps me understand things simply.
Being an Inventioneer is good because you get to invent anything you want
The ethernet is so interesting!
I really enjoyed watching this video!
I thought that the full duplex was interesting.
hello from michiannnn
This is interesting
How do you send gigabytes through all the 4 wires
My Dad is a network engineer. So it was fun getting to talk to him about the Ethernet!
Loved the context of this video
This Science Live is truly a eye opener to the true scientific discoveries that we as humans are going to see and use.
when was ethernet made
Every time I am watching science live I just love it.
What in the name of circuts
So interesting!!!
i like science live
This was amazing!
love science live!!
The inventions the concentrator, the equalizer circuit, and the balanced hybrid circuit, were so cool to learn about! Science Live is awesome!
From now on, whenever something goes wrong, I’m going to say, “That’s not a part of the circuit!” I like how R51 said that.
I can not wait to learn.
He is such a good host.
watching this from sc
I think it is so cool that they are finding new ways to restore hearing other than the cochlear implants!😁
I enjoyed the story about Dr. Billings when he was young.
How did you figure out how the fix the problems with the ethernet?
Was that Pajet on the newspaper in the proteges!?!?!
love science live
Learning about the Ethernet was so interesting! I can’t wait for next week’s science live!
your show is very fun to watch
This was a very good episode of science live.
I’ve been enjoying learning about the development of the Ethernet and how Dr. Billings developed the FIFO chip to help organize the information that individual computers were attempt to send to the network.
Love this cant wait for next week!
I love science!!!!
I am so glad Scince Live is back up on Acellus!! Great live tonight.
grate video. keep up the good work
Loved this live soo much!!!
Hello from iowa!!!
Comment where your from!!!
How long did you train as an inventor?
this was probally my favorite video yet
I love r.51 and the protages
Thanks for the video! It was very entertaining.
I loved learning about the collision problem!
I like watching these! Can’t wait to see the next one!
I wondering how different it is operating something that runs 1MB per second compared to the components we have today? Do people still use tech like this?
I loved the video so much to learn and it was great can’t wait too see what comes next video
I love that I learned so much in the video! 🙂
The internet is confusing for me, so being able to watch Science Live where it can be explained to me is amazing.
Thank you for the video it is very interesting as always!
I can’t wait to learn about the Ethernet!
I really love this weeks Science live
it was interesting to learn about the collision problems. Can’t wait to see the next video.
We’re learning so much about ethernet! It’s so cool!
Great science live.
I like science:)
AMAZING!!!!!
This live was one of my favorite ones! Currently waiting on next week’s!
Its really cool what a fifo chip can do.
I love this live it was so interesting .
How do computers talk to each other?
becoming an inventor sounds awesome
Supreme video🙌
I love all these lives and the jokes.
Watching from Texas
R51 IS BACK !
Hi from Montana
I think it is amazing that researchers have developed a gene therapy that will help people with hearing problems.
Nice to see another great video. Can’t wait for the next.
How interesting! What a great video!
I LOVEEE that humans have developed as far as to treat things such as deafness. It truly healed my soul ^U^
It’s awesome that it’s possible to cure certain types of deafness, that’s going to help a lot of people.
Can’t wait for next weeks video!
I don’t know bow safe this is, but what if you put the hydrogen tank next to the engine so that it can maintain a constant temperature instead of getting cold and not producing the correct amount of hydrogen?
I am really starting to enjoy these science lives and learning new things. I love to learning new things that I could apply to my real life experiences.
I learned about how networks send messages to other people.
I am glad Dr. Billings altered the ethernet. Thank you!!
It amazes me the research behind deaf hearing
I liked when R-51 was demonstrating his yes or no invention because that was interesting
science live is so cool I always learn something awesome!
I wonder what will come next
I like learning about the ethernet
Here from MS
Great show this week! Love learning about ethernet.
I can’t wait for the next video, keep up the good work!
Loved learning about the Ethernet!
I like inventing new things
Science live is the best!
I love science
I love Science Live.
Love to see what’s next !
It was a good video
very cool and inspiring
It was wonderful to learn how researchers have discovered ways for deaf people to be able to hear and get to experience things like music!
I like science
It’s cool how the FIFO chip fixed the collision problem.
Its feels like so many things people have done seem easy looking back on it
What a wonderful video!
It must have been hard making hearing aids, science is facanating
Acellus is fantastic!
Great science live today!
It was really exciting to learn about the Ethernet.
And learning about how DR.joseph met his wife 😂
I love watching science live its always so entertaining.
i loved the video i feel like it really helped me learn a lot
I loved this!
This weeks video was super interesting! I loved learning about the collision problems and how they were solved! Thanks! Can’t wait til next week’s video!
Love Science Live!
This episode of science live was cool
Great episode science live. R-51 is so funny!
u love that they found a way for deaf people to hear. makes me think of my grandpa
I loved this
i don’t think R.51 made a network it’s better to use plastic cups and string
This type of research and development will help us so much!!
I like learning from your videos.
Thank you for another awesome video!
Learned so much from this!
This episode covered all kinds of different areas.
i think its very interesting that people that can hear even though their deaf, it only takes a couple of months wow that’s amazing! It was very interesting to find out that Billings figured that out and plus they wouldn’t crash together. Also who found R-51 wasn’t he lost at the base ball game?
what an awesome Science Live this week!!!
wow this video was interesting
The network manager skit was hilarious!
its so interesting how you could potentially bring hearing back
I loved this science live.
Man that was good!