The blog commands a significant readership and readers follow it in a variety of ways: through an email subscription and an RSS feed, as well as through social media updates via Twitter[5] and Facebook.

[6][7][2] Author, engineer, and philosopher S. Abbas Raza founded 3 Quarks Daily in 2004 to serve as a conduit for content across disciplines for the web-based intellectual everyman.

The confluence of references to both science and literature in a single word suited the intent of the blog perfectly and the founders also thought that the name would be short and memorable.

In 2009, in the interest of encouraging and rewarding good writing in the blogosphere, 3QD announced that it would be awarding annual cash prizes, in Science, Arts & Literature, Politics, and Philosophy for the three best blog posts in each of these four fields.

A prominent intellectual such as Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins,[14] or Lewis Lapham[15] is chosen in each of the four areas to select the final winners.

[16] The 3 Quarks Daily blog has been praised by prominent authors and scientists including Richard Dawkins,[17] Christopher Lydon,[18] Steven Pinker,[19] Daniel Dennett,[20] Andrew Sullivan,[21] Ken Roth,[21] Laura Claridge,[20] John Allen Paulos,[20] and Thomas Manuel.