Daniel Honan
Former Managing Editor, Big Think
From 2011-2014, Daniel Honan was the Managing Editor at Big Think. Prior to Big Think, Daniel was Vice President of Production for Plum TV, a niche cable network he helped launch in 2002. The production team he oversaw won over two dozen Emmy awards. Daniel has created numerous shows and documentaries for television, and his film credits include Stealing the Fire, a documentary on the black market for nuclear weapons technology.
Follow Daniel on Twitter @DanielHonan
The current model of China manufacturing cheap goods for American consumers could soon be history. In the meantime, the human cost of the transition to the robot economy continues to be deeply disturbing, as evidenced by the ongoing drama at Foxconn.
Like any good gimmick, the so-called Doomsday Clock, an invention of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is meant to grab your attention. No, scientists have not discovered a way […]
The conservative conundrum regarding the Romney candidacy is the result of our plurality voting system that isn’t flexible enough to accurately measure voter preferences. While this system is adequate for a head-to-head race, it is deeply problematic when there are multiple candidates.
Mitt Romney and Dennis Kucinich agree on very few things, but both agree New Hampshire deserves to keep its status as the first primary in presidential nominating contests. Why New Hampshire?
How much smog is too much smog? Air pollution in Hong Kong is worse than it has ever been, and ten times worse than it was in 2005. In fact, […]
It was four years ago today that Big Think was launched by co-founders Victoria Montgomery Brown and Peter Hopkins to immediate fanfare. That day The New York Times hailed Big Think as “a Web […]
Imagine a drug that allows you to drink as much alcohol as you like, wake up without a hangover and never have to worry about developing a dependency.
Climate change deniers lost an important ally in 2011, as Berkeley physics professor Richard Muller recently switched sides. James Lawrence Powell dissects the curious case of this former climate skeptic.
June 23, 2012 will be the hundredth anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth. The so-called Year of Turing also presents an interesting framework for us to gauge the progress of computing.
In the busy world of the 21st century shouldn’t we be making it easier, not harder, to vote?
What’s the Big Idea? China has just made its intentions clear. According to a recently released white paper, it is now official Chinese policy to launch the country’s own space […]
We survey the groundbreaking ideas of 2011 from experts such as Daniel Kahneman, Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis, Sal Khan, Daniel Burrus, Michio Kaku, Steven Pinker and many others.
If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute. So goes the saying that is loosely attributed to Mark Twain. The same cannot be said of the […]
What’s the Big Idea? 2011 was a year of revolution. Oppressive regimes from Tunisia to Russia were either toppled or challenged. Social unrest broke out in England and in countless […]
With less than a week to go before the Iowa Caucus, it looks like former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum finally has some momentum. According to the latest CNN poll, Santorum […]
Did you go to the movies in 2011? Many hundreds of millions of people did, resulting in 1.26 billion tickets sold worldwide. And yet, this is the lowest amount of tickets […]
This ski season seems to be defying the laws of physics. When atmospheric temperatures are higher — which they have been — there should be more moisture in the air, […]
Complex math skills have been discovered in non-primates.
In the near future you will be able to manufacture a wide array of presents right in your own home with a 3D printer. Think of it as a high tech Santa’s workshop, without the elves.
Just in time for the holidays, the Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an amazing view of a cosmic event that is being called the “Holiday Snow Angel.” The image captures […]
Scientists have discovered the smallest exoplanets yet known, and both represent the closest we have come to finding Earth’s twin. Using NASA’s Kepler telescope, researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for […]
If 2011 is the year of Twitter Revolutions, what will be the big idea for 2012?
What’s the Big Idea? As Newt Gingrich appears to have peaked, and now plunged in the polls, the latest candidate to enter the GOP Presidential speed-dating game is Ron Paul. […]
What’s the Big Idea? Will North Korea experience a smooth transition from Kim Jong-Il to the so-called “great successor,” Kim Jong-un? Big Think asked Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, a political […]
ACLU President Susan Herman outlines how you can legally and properly exercise your Constitutional rights when you are stopped by the police.
Aron Cramer, CEO of Business for Social Responsibility, has developed what he calls a “kaleidoscopic measure of business success.”
The knock against many technology companies is they create too few jobs in their own countries. That complaint needs serious amending. Tech companies are creating plenty of jobs for robots.
Of all the reactions to CERN’s announcement that scientists found only “tantalizing hints” of the so-called God Particle, the gossip site Gawker had the most amusing headline: Can Scientists Just Find […]
UPDATED: 12.12 10:08 AM EST: If you were hoping for an early Christmas present, you will be disappointed. The discovery of the Higgs particle will not be confirmed until 2012 at […]
The economist Tim Harford argues we don’t need to avoid mistakes. Rather, mistakes need to be “revealed, exposed and then corrected as soon as possible.”