roentgenium ← copernicium → ununtrium Hg ↑ Cn ↓ (Uhb) 112Cn Periodic table
Appearance
unknown
General properties
Name, symbol, number	copernicium, Cn, 112
Pronunciation	/koʊpərˈnɪsiəm/ koe-pər-NIS-ee-əm
Element category	transition metal
Group, period, block	12, 7, d
Standard atomic weight	[285]
Electron configuration	[Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 (predicted)
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 18, 2 (predicted) (Image)
Physical properties
Phase	Unknown
Atomic properties
Oxidation states	4, 2[1][2] (a guess based on that of mercury)
Covalent radius	122 (predicted)[3] pm
Miscellanea
CAS registry number	54084-26-3
Most stable isotopes
Main article: Isotopes of copernicium
iso NA half-life DM DE (MeV) DP 285aCn syn 29 s α 9.15,9.03? 281aDs 285bCn ? syn 8.9 min α 8.63 281bDs ? 284Cn syn 97 ms SF 283aCn syn 4 s[4] 90% α 9.53,9.32,8.94 279Ds 10% SF 283bCn ?? syn ~ 7.0 min SF 282Cn syn 0.8 ms SF 281Cn syn 97 ms α 10.31 277Ds 277Cn syn 0.7 ms α 11.45,11.32 273Ds
v t e · r

Copernicium ( /koʊpərˈnɪsiəm/ koh-pər-NIS-ee-əm) is a chemical element with symbol Cn and atomic number 112. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element that can only be created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of approximately 29 seconds, but it is possible that this copernicium isotope may have an isomer with a longer half-life, 8.9 min. Copernicium was first created in 1996 by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany. It is named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

In the periodic table of the elements, it is a d-block element, which belongs to transactinide elements. During reactions with gold, it is shown^[5] to be a volatile metal and a group 12 element. Copernicium is calculated to have several properties that differ between it and its lighter homologues, zinc, cadmium and mercury; the most notable of them is withdrawing two 6d-electrons before 7s ones due to relativistic effects, which confirm copernicium as an undisputed transition metal. Copernicium is also calculated to show a predominance of the oxidation state +4, while mercury shows it in only one compound at extreme conditions and zinc and cadmium do not show it at all. Difficulty of oxidation of copernicium from its neutral state compared to group 12 elements has also been predicted.

In total, approximately 75 atoms of copernicium have been detected using various nuclear reactions, of which the longest lived ones were estimated to have a half-life of around 10 minutes.

History[link]

Official discovery[link]

Copernicium was first created on February 9, 1996, at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany, by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov et al.^[6] This element was created by firing accelerated zinc-70 nuclei at a target made of lead-208 nuclei in a heavy ion accelerator. A single atom (the second was subsequently dismissed) of copernicium was produced with a mass number of 277.^[6]

208
82Pb + 70
30Zn → 278
112Cn → 277
112Cn + 1
0n

In May 2000, the GSI successfully repeated the experiment to synthesize a further atom of copernicium-277.^[7][8] This reaction was repeated at RIKEN using the Search for a Super-Heavy Element Using a Gas-Filled Recoil Separator set-up in 2004 to synthesize two further atoms and confirm the decay data reported by the GSI team.^[9]

The IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party (JWP) assessed the claim of discovery by the GSI team in 2001^[10] and 2003.^[11] In both cases, they found that there was insufficient evidence to support their claim. This was primarily related to the contradicting decay data for the known nuclide rutherfordium-261. However, between 2001 and 2005, the GSI team studied the reaction ²⁴⁸Cm(²⁶Mg,5n)²⁶⁹Hs, and were able to confirm the decay data for hassium-269 and rutherfordium-261. It was found that the existing data on rutherfordium-261 was for an isomer,^[12] now designated rutherfordium-261a.

In May 2009, the JWP reported on the claims of discovery of element 112 again and officially recognized the GSI team as the discoverers of element 112.^[13] This decision was based on the confirmation of the decay properties of daughter nuclei as well as the confirmatory experiments at RIKEN.^[14]

Naming[link]

Copernicium was named after Nicolaus Copernicus, a scientist who showed that the Earth moves around the Sun, and not the other way round.

After acknowledging their discovery, the IUPAC asked the discovery team at GSI to suggest a permanent name for ununbium.^[14][15] On 14 July 2009, they proposed copernicium with the element symbol Cp, after Nicolaus Copernicus "to honor an outstanding scientist, who changed our view of the world."^[16] IUPAC delayed the official recognition of the name, pending the results of a six-month discussion period among the scientific community.^[17][18]

However, it was pointed out that the symbol Cp was previously associated with the name cassiopeium (cassiopium), now known as lutetium (Lu).^[19][20] Furthermore, the symbol Cp is also used in organometallic chemistry to denote the cyclopentadienyl ligand. For this reason, the IUPAC disallowed the use of Cp as a future symbol, prompting the GSI team to put forward the symbol Cn as an alternative. On 19 February 2010, the 537th anniversary of Copernicus' birth, IUPAC officially accepted the proposed name and symbol.^[17][21] The name was also approved by the General Assembly of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) on November 4, 2011.^[22]

Nucleosynthesis[link]

Super-heavy elements such as copernicium are produced by bombarding lighter elements in particle accelerators that induces fusion reactions. Whereas most of the isotopes of rutherfordium can be synthesized directly this way, some heavier ones have only been observed as decay products of elements with higher atomic numbers.^[14]

Depending on the energies involved, the former are separated into "hot" and "cold". In hot fusion reactions, very light, high-energy projectiles are accelerated toward very heavy targets such as actinides, giving rise to compound nuclei at high excitation energy (~40–50 MeV) that may either fission or evaporate several (3 to 5) neutrons.^[14] In cold fusion reactions, the produced fused nuclei have a relatively low excitation energy (~10–20 MeV), which decreases the probability that these products will undergo fission reactions. As the fused nuclei cool to the ground state, they require emission of only one or two neutrons, and thus, allows for the generation of more neutron-rich products.^[23] The latter is a distinct concept from that of where nuclear fusion claimed to be achieved at room temperature conditions (see cold fusion).^[24]

Cold fusion[link]

The first cold fusion reaction to produce copernicium was performed by GSI in 1996, who reported the detection of two decay chains of copernicium-277.^[6]

208
82Pb + 70
30Zn → 277
112Cn + n

In a review of the data in 2000, the first decay chain was retracted. In a repeat of the reaction in 2000 they were able to synthesize a further atom. They attempted to measure the 1n excitation function in 2002 but suffered from a failure of the zinc-70 beam. The unofficial discovery of copernicium-277 was confirmed in 2004 at RIKEN, where researchers detected a further two atoms of the isotope and were able to confirm the decay data for the entire chain.^[9]

After the successful synthesis of copernicium-277, the GSI team performed a reaction using a ⁶⁸Zn projectile in 1997 in an effort to study the effect of isospin (neutron richness) on the chemical yield.

208
82Pb + 68
30Zn → 276-x
112Cn + x n

The experiment was initiated after the discovery of a yield enhancement during the synthesis of darmstadtium isotopes using nickel-62 and nickel-64 ions. No decay chains of copernicium-275 were detected leading to a cross section limit of 1.2 picobarns (pb). However, the revision of the yield for the zinc-70 reaction to 0.5 pb does not rule out a similar yield for this reaction.

In 1990, after some early indications for the formation of isotopes of copernicium in the irradiation of a tungsten target with multi-GeV protons, a collaboration between GSI and the Hebrew University studied the foregoing reaction.

184
74W + 88
38Sr → 272-x
112Cn + x n

They were able to detect some spontaneous fission (SF) activity and a 12.5 MeV alpha decay, both of which they tentatively assigned to the radiative capture product copernicium-272 or the 1n evaporation residue copernicium-271. Both the TWG and JWP have concluded that a lot more research is required to confirm these conclusions.^[14]

Hot fusion[link]

In 1998, the team at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Research (FLNR) in Dubna, Russia began a research program using calcium-48 nuclei in "warm" fusion reactions leading to super-heavy elements. In March 1998, they claimed to have synthesized two atoms of the element in the following reaction.

238
92U + 48
20Ca → 286-x
112Cn + x n (x=3,4)

The product, copernicium-283, had a claimed half-life of 5 minutes, decaying by spontaneous fission.^[25]

The long half-life of the product initiated first chemical experiments on the gas phase atomic chemistry of copernicium. In 2000, Yuri Yukashev in Dubna repeated the experiment but was unable to observe any spontaneous fission with half-life of 5 minutes. The experiment was repeated in 2001 and an accumulation of eight fragments resulting from spontaneous fission were found in the low-temperature section, indicating that copernicium had radon-like properties. However, there is now some serious doubt about the origin of these results. To confirm the synthesis, the reaction was successfully repeated by the same team in January 2003, confirming the decay mode and half-life. They were also able to calculate an estimate of the mass of the spontaneous fission activity to ~285, lending support to the assignment.^[26]

The team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, United States entered the debate and performed the reaction in 2002. They were unable to detect any spontaneous fission and calculated a cross section limit of 1.6 pb for the detection of a single event.^[27]

The reaction was repeated in 2003–2004 by the team at Dubna using a slightly different set-up, the Dubna Gas-Filled Recoil Separator (DGFRS). This time, copernicium-283 was found to decay by emission of a 9.53 MeV alpha-particle with a half-life of 4 seconds. copernicium-282 was also observed in the 4n channel (emitting 4 neutrons).^[28]

In 2003, the team at GSI entered the debate and performed a search for the five-minute SF activity in chemical experiments. Like the Dubna team, they were able to detect seven SF fragments in the low temperature section. However, these SF events were uncorrelated, suggesting they were not from actual direct SF of copernicium nuclei and raised doubts about the original indications for radon-like properties.^[29] After the announcement from Dubna of different decay properties for copernicium-283, the GSI team repeated the experiment in September 2004. They were unable to detect any SF events and calculated a cross section limit of ~1.6 pb for the detection of one event, not in contradiction with the reported 2.5 pb yield by Dubna.

In May 2005, the GSI performed a physical experiment and identified a single atom of ²⁸³Cn decaying by SF with a short half-time suggesting a previously unknown SF branch.^[30] However, initial work by Dubna had detected several direct SF events but had assumed that the parent alpha decay had been missed. These results indicated that this was not the case.

The new decay data on copernicium-283 were confirmed in 2006 by a joint PSI–FLNR experiment aimed at probing the chemical properties of copernicium. Two atoms of copernicium-283 were observed in the decay of the parent ununquadium-287 nuclei. The experiment indicated that contrary to previous experiments, copernicium behaves as a typical member of group 12, demonstrating properties of a volatile metal.^[5]

Finally, the team at GSI successfully repeated their physical experiment in January 2007, and detected three atoms of copernicium-283, confirming both the alpha and SF decay modes.^[31]

As such, the 5 minutes SF activity is still unconfirmed and unidentified. It is possible that it refers to an isomer, namely copernicium-283b, whose yield is dependent upon the exact production methods.

233
92U + 48
20Ca → 281-x
112Cn + x n

The team at FLNR studied this reaction in 2004. They were unable to detect any atoms of copernicium and calculated a cross section limit of 0.6 pb. The team concluded that this indicated that the neutron mass number for the compound nucleus had an effect on the yield of evaporation residues.^[28]

Decay products[link]

Copernicium has been observed as decay products of ununquadium. Ununquadium currently has five known isotopes, all of which have been shown to undergo alpha decays to become copernicium nuclei, with mass numbers between 281 and 285. Copernicium isotopes with mass numbers 281, 284 and 285 to date have only been produced by ununquadium nuclei decay. Parent ununquadium nuclei can be themselves decay products of ununhexium or ununoctium. To date, no other elements have been known to decay to copernicium.^[36]

For example, in May 2006, the Dubna team (JINR) identified copernicium-282 as a final product in the decay of ununoctium via the alpha decay sequence. It was found that the final nucleus undergoes spontaneous fission.^[33]

294
118Uuo → 290
Error in Template:ProtonsForElement: unknown element ununhexium.Uuh + 4
2He

290
Error in Template:ProtonsForElement: unknown element ununhexium.Uuh → 286
Error in Template:ProtonsForElement: unknown element ununquadium.Uuq + 4
2He

286
Error in Template:ProtonsForElement: unknown element ununquadium.Uuq → 282
112Cn + 4
2He

In the claimed synthesis of ununoctium-293 in 1999, copernicium-281 was identified as decaying by emission of a 10.68 MeV alpha particle with half-life 0.90 ms.^[37] The claim was retracted in 2001. This isotope was finally created in 2010 and its decay properties supported that the previous data was wrong.^[32]

Isotopes[link]

Copernicium has no stable or naturally-occurring isotopes. Several radioactive isotopes have been synthesized in the laboratory, either by fusing two atoms or by observing the decay of heavier elements. Six different isotopes have been reported with atomic masses from 281 to 285, and 277, two of which, copernicium-283 and copernicium-285, have known metastable states. Most of these decay predominantly through alpha decay, but some undergo spontaneous fission.^[36]

The isotope copernicium-283 was instrumental in the confirmation of the elements ununquadium and ununhexium.^[38]

Half-lives[link]

All copernicium isotopes are extremely unstable and radioactive; in general, heavier isotopes are more stable than the lighter. The most stable isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of 29 seconds, although it is suspected that this isotope has an isomer with a half-life of 8.9 minutes, and copernicium-283 may have an isomer with a half-life of about 5 minutes. Other isotopes have half-lives shorter than 0.1 seconds. Copernicium-281 and copernicium-284 have half-life of 97 ms, and the other two isotopes have half-lives slightly under one millisecond.^[36]

The lightest isotopes were synthesized by direct fusion between two lighter nuclei and as decay products (except for copernicium-277, which is known to be a decay product), while the heavier isotopes are only known to be produced by decay of heavier nuclei. The heaviest isotope produced by direct fusion is copernicium-283; the two heavier isotopes, copernicium-284 and copernicium-285 have only been observed as decay products of elements with larger atomic numbers.^[36] In 1999, American scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, announced that they had succeeded in synthesizing three atoms of ²⁹³118.^[37] These parent nuclei were reported to have successively emitted three alpha particles to form copernicium-281 nuclei, which were claimed to have undergone an alpha decay, emitting an alpha particle with decay energy of 10.68 MeV and half-life 0.90 ms, but their claim was retracted in 2001.^[39] The isotope, however, was produced in 2010 by the same team. The new data contradicted the previous (fabricated)^[40] data.^[32]

Nuclear isomerism[link]

First experiments on the synthesis of ²⁸³Cn produced a SF activity with half-life ~5 min.^[36] This activity was also observed from the alpha decay of ununquadium-287. The decay mode and half-life were also confirmed in a repetition of the first experiment. Later, copernicium-283 was observed to undergo 9.52 MeV alpha decay and SF with a half-life of 3.9 s. It has also been found that alpha decay of copernicium-283 leads to different excited states of darmstadtium-279.^[28] These results suggest the assignment of the two activities to two different isomeric levels in copernicium-283, creating copernicium-283a and copernicium-283b.

Copernicium-285 has only been observed as a decay product of ununquadium-289 and ununhexium-293; during the first recorded synthesis of ununquadium, one ununquadium-289 was created, which alpha decayed to copernicium-285, which itself emitted an alpha particle in 29 seconds, releasing 9.15 or 9.03 MeV.^[28] However, in the first experiment to successfully synthesize ununhexium, when ununhexium-293 was created, it was shown that the created nuclide alpha decayed to ununquadium-289, decay data for which differed from the known values significantly. Although unconfirmed, it is highly possible that this is associated with an isomer. The resulting nuclide decayed to copernicium-285, which emitted an alpha particle with a half-life of around 10 minutes, releasing 8.586 MeV. Similar to its parent, it is believed to be a nuclear isomer, copernicium-285b.^[41]

Chemical properties[link]

Extrapolated oxidation states[link]

Copernicium is the last member of the 6d series of transition metals and the heaviest group 12 element in the periodic table, below zinc, cadmium and mercury. It is predicted to differ significantly from lighter group 12 elements. Due to stabilization of 7s electronic orbitals and destabilization of 6d ones caused by relativistic effects, Cn²⁺ is likely to have a [Rn]5f¹⁴6d⁸7s² electronic configuration, breaking 6d orbitals before 7s one, unlike its homologues. In water solutions, copernicium is likely to form +2 and +4 oxidation states, with the latter one being more stable.^[42] Among lighter group 12 members, for which the +2 oxidation state is the most common, only mercury can show +4 oxidation state, but it is highly uncommon, existing at only one compound (mercury(IV) fluoride, HgF₄) at extreme conditions.^[43] The analogous compound for copernicium, CnF₄, is predicted to be more stable.^[42] The diatomic ion Hg2+
2, featuring mercury in +1 oxidation state is well-known, but the Cn2+
2 ion is predicted to be unstable or even non-existent.^[42] Oxidation of copernicium from its neutral state is also likely to be harder than those of previous group 12 members.^[42]

Experimental atomic gas phase chemistry[link]

Copernicium has the ground state electron configuration [Rn]5f¹⁴6d¹⁰7s² and thus should belong to group 12 of the periodic table, according to the Aufbau principle. As such, it should behave as the heavier homologue of mercury and form strong binary compounds with noble metals like gold. Experiments probing the reactivity of copernicium have focused on the adsorption of atoms of element 112 onto a gold surface held at varying temperatures, in order to calculate an adsorption enthalpy. Due to relativistic stabilization of the 7s electrons, copernicium shows radon-like properties. Experiments were performed with the simultaneous formation of mercury and radon radioisotopes, allowing a comparison of adsorption characteristics.^[1]

The first experiments were conducted using the ²³⁸U(⁴⁸Ca,3n)²⁸³Cn reaction. Detection was by spontaneous fission of the claimed parent isotope with half-life of 5 minutes. Analysis of the data indicated that copernicium was more volatile than mercury and had noble gas properties. However, the confusion regarding the synthesis of copernicium-283 has cast some doubt on these experimental results. Given this uncertainty, between April–May 2006 at the JINR, a FLNR–PSI team conducted experiments probing the synthesis of this isotope as a daughter in the nuclear reaction ²⁴²Pu(⁴⁸Ca,3n)²⁸⁷Uuq. In this experiment, two atoms of copernicium-283 were unambiguously identified and the adsorption properties indicated that copernicium is a more volatile homologue of mercury, due to formation of a weak metal-metal bond with gold, placing it firmly in group 12.^[1]

In April 2007, this experiment was repeated and a further three atoms of copernicium-283 were positively identified. The adsorption property was confirmed and indicated that copernicium has adsorption properties completely in agreement with being the heaviest member of group 12.^[1]

See also[link]

• Island of stability

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up copernicium in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: copernicium

• WebElements.com: Copernicium

vep:Kopernicii

The Edge
Background information
Birth name	David Howell Evans
Born	(1961-08-08) 8 August 1961 (age 50) Barking, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Origin	County Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, activist
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano, bass guitar
Years active	1976–present
Labels	Island, Mercury
Associated acts	U2, Passengers
Website	www.u2.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Explorer Fender Stratocaster Gibson Les Paul Fender Telecaster Gretsch Country Gentleman Gretsch White Falcon Rickenbacker 330/12

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge),^[1] is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.

As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Personal life[link]

The Edge at a U2 concert in Anaheim (2005)

David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital,^[2] Essex, England to Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans.^[1] When he was one, his family moved to County Dublin, Ireland where he attended St Andrew's National School. He received piano and guitar lessons and often performed with his brother Dik Evans before they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen, Jr. at their school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School, seeking musicians to form a band.^[3] The band accepted both of them. This band went through several incarnations before emerging as U2 in March 1978 (Dik Evans left the band just before the name change).^[3] U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their debut album, Boy, was released in 1980.

In 1981, leading up to the October tour, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he decided to stay.^[3] During this period, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved.^[4] Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday".^[3] The Edge married his high school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983.^[5] The couple had three daughters together: Hollie in 1984, Arran in 1985 and Blue Angel in 1989.^[4] The couple separated in 1990, but were unable to get officially divorced because of Irish laws regarding marriage annulment; divorce was legalised in 1995 and the couple were legally divorced in 1996.^[4]

In 1993, The Edge began dating Morleigh Steinberg, a professional dancer and choreographer employed by the band as a belly dancer during the Zoo TV Tour. They had a daughter, Sian (born 1997), and a son, Levi (born 25 October 1999),^[4] before marrying on 22 June 2002.^[4] He appeared in the 2009 music documentary film It Might Get Loud.^[6] The Edge has been criticized for his efforts to build five luxury mansions on a 156 acre plot of land in Malibu, California.^[7] The California Coastal Commission voted 8-4 against the plans, with the project described by the commission's executive director, Peter Douglas, as "In 38 years...one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation...It's a contradiction in terms – you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location."^[7] The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy agreed to remain neutral on the issue following a $1 million donation from The Edge and a commitment from The Edge to designate 100 acres of the land as open space for public footpaths.^[7]

Music style[link]

Guitar playing[link]

As a guitar player, The Edge has a sound typified by a low-key playing style, a chiming, shimmering sound (thanks in part to the sound of VOX AC-30s) that he achieves with extensive use of delay effects and reverb. The feedback delay is often set to a dotted eighth note (3/16 of a measure), and the feedback gain is adjusted until a note played repeats two or three times.^{[citation needed]}

On 1987's The Joshua Tree, The Edge often contributes just a few simple lead lines given depth and richness by an ever-present delay. For example, the introduction to "Where the Streets Have No Name" is simply a repeated six-note arpeggio, broadened by a modulated delay effect. The Edge has said that he views musical notes as "expensive", in that he prefers to play as few notes as possible. He said in 1982 of his style,

"I like a nice ringing sound on guitar, and most of my chords I find two strings and make them ring the same note, so it's almost like a 12-string sound. So for E I might play a B, E, E and B and make it ring. It works very well with the Gibson Explorer. It's funny because the bass end of the Explorer was so awful that I used to stay away from the low strings, and a lot of the chords I played were very trebly, on the first four, or even three strings. I discovered that through using this one area of the fretboard I was developing a very stylized way of doing something that someone else would play in a normal way."^[9]

Many different influences have shaped The Edge's guitar technique.^{[citation needed]} His first guitar was an old acoustic guitar that his mother bought him at a local flea market for only a few pounds; he was nine at the time. He and his brother Dik Evans both experimented with this instrument.^[9] He said in 1982 of this early experimentation, "I suppose the first link in the chain was a visit to the local jumble sale where I purchased a guitar for a pound. That was my first instrument. It was an acoustic guitar and me and my elder brother Dik both played it, plonking away, all very rudimentary stuff, open chords and all that."^[9] The Edge has stated that many of his guitar parts are based around guitar effects. This is especially true from the Achtung Baby era onwards, although much of the band's 1980s material made heavy use of echos.

Vocals[link]

The Edge in June 2005

The Edge also supplies the backing vocals for U2. U2's 1983 live album and video release, Under a Blood Red Sky and Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky are good reference points for his singing (as are the live DVDs from the Elevation Tour, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle and Elevation 2001: Live from Boston). For example, he sings the chorus to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (Bono harmonizes on the final 'Sunday'). U2 used this tradeoff technique later in "Bullet the Blue Sky" as well. His backing vocals are sometimes in the form of a repeated cry; examples of songs that use this approach include "Beautiful Day", "New Year's Day" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". Another technique he uses in his backing vocals is the falsetto, in songs such as "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", "A Man and a Woman", "The Wanderer", live versions of "The Fly", and "Window in the Skies".

The Edge sings the lead vocal on "Van Diemen's Land" and "Numb", the first half of the song "Seconds", dual vocals with Bono in "Discotheque", and the bridge in the song "Miracle Drug".^[4] He also sings the occasional lead vocal in live renditions of other songs (such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during the PopMart Tour and "Party Girl" during the Rotterdam Zoo TV show when it was Bono's birthday).^[10] He also plays a solo acoustic version of the song "Love is Blindness" that is featured in the documentary film From the Sky Down.

Other instruments[link]

He has played piano and keyboards on many of the band's songs, including "I Fall Down", "October", "So Cruel", "New Year's Day", "Running to Stand Still", "Miss Sarajevo", "The Hands that Built America", and "Original of the Species" and others. He plays the organ on "Please". In live versions of "New Year's Day", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Your Blue Room", and "Moment of Surrender", he plays both the piano and guitar parts alternately. In most live versions of "Original of the Species," piano is the only instrument played during the song. Although The Edge is the band's lead guitarist, he occasionally plays bass guitar, including the live performances of the song "40" where The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton switch instruments.

Solo recordings[link]

In addition to his regular role within U2, The Edge has also recorded with such artists as Johnny Cash, B. B. King, Tina Turner, Ronnie Wood, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. The Edge connected with Brian Eno and Lanois collaborator Michael Brook (the creator of the infinite guitar, which he regularly uses), working with him on the score to the film Captive (1986). From this soundtrack the song "Heroine", the vocal of which was sung by a young Sinéad O'Connor was released as a single.

He also created the theme song for season one and two of The Batman. He and fellow U2 member, Bono, wrote the lyrics to the theme of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. The Edge, along with bandmate Bono, recently composed a musical adaptation of Spider-Man. On May 25, 2011, a single titled Rise Above 1: Reeve Carney Featuring Bono and The Edge was released digitally.^[11] The music video was released on July 28, 2011.^[12]

Musical equipment[link]

Edge's 1964 Vox AC30 on stage in Foxborough for the U2 360° Tour.

The Edge plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, bass guitar (on "40" and "Race Against Time") and lap steel guitar. Compared to many lead guitarists, The Edge is known for using many more guitars during a show. According to his guitar tech Dallas Schoo, a typical lead guitarist uses four or five different guitars in one night, whereas The Edge takes 45 on the road, and uses 17 to 19 in one 2.5-hour concert. He is estimated to have more than 200 guitars in the studio.^{[citation needed]}

Philanthropy[link]

In 2005, The Edge along with Bob Ezrin and Henry Juszkiewicz co-founded Music Rising, a charity that helped provide replacement instruments for those that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. The instruments were originally only replaced for professional musicians but they soon realized the community churches and schools needed instruments as well. The charity's slogan is "Rebuilding the Gulf Region note by note" and has so far helped over a hundred musicians who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Edge also serves on the board of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global health by advancing angiogenesis-based medicine, diets, and lifestyle.^[13]

See also[link]

• Timeline of U2
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References[link]

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links[link]

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Edge

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Edge

• U2.com, official U2 site
• Music Rising
• The Edge at the Internet Movie Database
• The Edge – Album Credits
• A Study of The Edge's Guitar Delay
• The Edge: 'It's all about the vision'
• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement
• Comment on the mathematical analysis of The Edge's guitar sound