Congratulations to all the women and men at CERN, where they have been successfully colliding beams at 7 TeV in the Large Hadron Collider for over an hour now.

Particle physicists around the world are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.

“It’s a great day to be a particle physicist,” said CERN1 Director General Rolf Heuer. “A lot of people have waited a long time for this moment, but their patience and dedication is starting to pay dividends.”

Shine on you crazy bastards.