Search Results

Receive 3QD Posts by Email

Please fill out the form below to get our email with all the posts from the previous 24 hours, which is sent out a bit after midnight (NY City time) each day. This is completely free of charge for everyone.

	Name:
	Your email address:*

Please enter all required fields Correct invalid entries

Coronavirus COVID-19 Info

PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Search 3QD

Follow 3QD on Social Media

What People Say About 3QD

"3 Quarks Daily is smart and highclass."

—Robert Pinsky, only three-term U.S. Poet Laureate.

"3QD is always interesting--you (and your other contributors) have a fine eye for good writing in both the arts and the sciences, which is a very rare thing indeed."

—Rochelle Gurstein, author of The Repeal of Reticence, and frequent contributor to The New Republic, Salmagundi, and American Scholar.

"For sheer elegance, wit and worldly wisdom when it comes to reading, editing, presenting the real news of the world... for liveliness, cosmopolitanism, range of scientific, philosophical, and literary curiosity in harvesting big and provocative ideas... for consistency of character and manners, ever above the ordinary... 3 Quarks stands alone. If 3 Quarks Daily were a person, wouldn't it be Proust?"

—Christopher Lydon, host of the excellent show "Open Source" on National Public Radio, author, media personality.

"I have placed 3 Quarks Daily at the head of my list of web bookmarks."

—Richard Dawkins, previously Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

"I look at your site every day. It's where the two cultures meet."

—Suketu Mehta, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Maximum City, winner of the O. Henry Prize, and frequent contributor to various newspapers and magazines.

3 Quarks Daily is an essential stop for any serious reader on the Web."

—Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch since 1993.

"3 Quarks Daily is one of the most interesting aggregator blogs out there. It puts together stuff from art, science, philosophy, politics, literature. It’s a completely international, cosmopolitan place to get information. It’s become my entry point to reading on the Web."

—Mohsin Hamid, author of Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, in the New York Times.

"I look for relevant research, interesting themes and funny stories on sites like 3 Quarks Daily, Crooked Timber, Boing Boing and Slashdot."

—Clay Shirky, prominent thinker on the Internet and its social and economic consequences, and author of Here Comes Everybody, in The Atlantic.

"Thanks for 3 Quarks Daily which has been very high on my reading list for several years now!"

—Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He is also co-founder, with Martin Rees and Jaan Tallinn, of a project to establish a Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

"The algorithms that curate your social-media timeline do so with indifference and programmed greed. The humans who curate 3QD do so with love and well-aged wisdom. Read 3QD instead! It’s so much better!"

—Justin E. H. Smith, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Paris.

Recent Comments on 3QD

Aaron Dell What happened?
First results from Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment strengthen evidence of new physics · Monday, April 19, 2021
Ruchira We really hadn't planned to go anywhere even after our second dose of the vaccine unless absolutely necessary. But when I noticed that my introverted,...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley I didn't know that. I saw him perform once but was probably far enough away not to hear it.
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
S Herb Most music criticism is mundane, but sometimes words can really add to the experience. I remember a pianist describing Schubert's last piano sonata,...
Do We Deprive Music of Its Mystery by Writing About It? · Monday, April 19, 2021
Michael Liss Brooks, Peter Serkin used to do the same thing.
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley This was a very interesting piece, Christopher. I couldn’t help but think of the East India Company, which consistently turned down Humboldt’s...
The Valet and His Hero · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara I am going back to try and hear... I love that he was humming... with scenery like that, who could help but hum?
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley It's very faint, but if your speakers are good, you probably heard Paolo humming in the background. It reminded me of Glenn Gould, who hummed in many...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley Thanks, Jochen. Like you, my serial nesting urges have a lot to do with the desire to reinvent myself, something that doesn't subside with age. But...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara That is exactly how I felt-- So transportive like being sucked into a vortex... the only similar feeling I've had is with those stereo photographs my...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley Unfortunately, my screenshots from that 4K journey are too dark because my screen brightness was lowered. But the 4K-60 fps resolution is almost...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley That sounds like a wonderful trip, not just spatially but temporally! It's been so long since I read Willa Cather, but there was a time when I was...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara I was transfixed by the 4K train journey... the quality and the sound was incredible. My uncle collects antique stereo photographs --I guess they are...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Brooks Riley That's a spectacular ride! The YouTube algorithm has gotten wise to my motion deficit and now offers many train trips in Switzerland and elsewhere....
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara I loved what your friend said, Charlie! Onward...!
Small Press Publishing: Necessary Imprint on a Big-Press World · Monday, April 19, 2021
Charlie Huenemann It will be great having your essays on the virtues of small presses! When I was a young scholar, full of narrow-minded academic professionalism, I...
Small Press Publishing: Necessary Imprint on a Big-Press World · Monday, April 19, 2021
Jochen Szangolies Yes, I've been very fortunate to have been at the receiving end of many insightful comments from Leanne and Brooks! It's been the most rewarding part...
Living through lives of others · Monday, April 19, 2021
Ruchira "As of April 12, more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen ) vaccine have been administered in the U.S. CDC and FDA are...
Amerigun · Monday, April 19, 2021
Jochen Szangolies Wonderfully meditative essay, Brooks! I share your love of train rides, if perhaps not for exactly the same reason. To me, they've always been a way...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara As a huge reader of Indie-published books, I thank you for this essay and for your own role in this important part of the artistic process! Earlier...
Small Press Publishing: Necessary Imprint on a Big-Press World · Monday, April 19, 2021
Ruchira So true! The lack of movement and the resulting lack of change in perspective day after homebound day, are what feel so oppressive these days. We just...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara On the move! I can see why you were enthralled by that video—wow! Wanderlust is a pushing back of that feeling of being constrained… we lust to...
On the Move · Monday, April 19, 2021
Leanne Ogasawara What a wonderful essay, Ash! A few years ago, a friend was visiting our house for the first time and began poking around our bookcases. He started...
Books I Have Known: A Scientific Childhood (Part 1) · Monday, April 19, 2021
Ken_Pidcock Actually, the correct word is exobiology, coined by Joshua Lederberg.
If life exists on other planets, we’ll find the words · Sunday, April 18, 2021
Charlie Huenemann Very interesting!
Is there any hope for Esperanto? · Saturday, April 17, 2021
Peter Yes indeed Charlie, that is the challenge facing Esperanto - apart from getting more people to speak it. The more popular it gets, the harder it will...
Is there any hope for Esperanto? · Saturday, April 17, 2021
Charlie Huenemann Great article, and great discussion. It seems to me the vital question is not whether Esperanto changes or can change - it had better be able to...
Is there any hope for Esperanto? · Saturday, April 17, 2021
Charlie Huenemann What a wonderful comment! Thank you for taking the time to compose it. I have discovered now that I am several steps behind in your articles and an...
Living through lives of others · Saturday, April 17, 2021
Peter Hello, Jordan, this response came to my email but was trapped in a spam trap until Abbas released it today. Thanks for your comments, which have...
Is there any hope for Esperanto? · Saturday, April 17, 2021
Peter I've had an email response to this post from Tim Owen, the current Director of the Esperanto Association of Great Britain. Tim was in general...
Is there any hope for Esperanto? · Saturday, April 17, 2021

3QD Design History and Credits

The original site was designed by S. Abbas Raza in 2004 but soon completely redesigned by Mikko Hyppönen and deployed by Henrik Rydberg. It was later upgraded extensively by Dan Balis in 2006. The next major revision was designed by S. Abbas Raza, building upon the earlier look, and coded by Dumky de Wilde in 2013. And this current version 5.0 has been designed and deployed by Dumky de Wilde in collaboration with S. Abbas Raza.