A big day for physics, CERN made it's first 7 TEV collisions. (You'll have to ask Derek if you want more information as that's about the best I can offer). I do know that it has been a long time coming- its taken careers worth of planning and fixing, the world's largest collaborative efforts, lots of hard work, waiting, and tons and tons of coffee. And no, no giant black hole swallowed the earth as far as I can tell. Congratulations to all those physicists out there! Now when are you getting up to 14 TEV?
CERN offered a live web cast of the days events- a slight delay in the AM that was quickly resolved and interviews from the control rooms. I have to admit, I got sucked in and spent the better part of the day glued to the webcast. Here are some screen capture shots I made from the broadcast of the first collisions:
If you'd like to read more, here is the official CERN press release, a good place to start.
Above: First collisions recorded by CMS detector. Photograph: Marzena Lapka, Date: 30 Mar 2010
