LHC has first collisions after years of waiting

An anonymous reader writes: Only after four days from first attempt to send a particle beam all around the LHC circle have we arrived at the point that today all four experiments got their first real collisions from the machine. This was met by celebrations and champagne as people have been waiting years and years for this moment. It is a statement to the engineering of the machine that collisions were reached already few days after restart and the LHC has already demonstrated ca 10h stable beams and now also stable beams in both directions at the same time. In the coming weeks we now have just to wait for increased intensity and first attempts to acceleration.