The Vincent and Mary Markham Monument

Monument to the discoveries.

A week ago I was standing with my wife by the River Tagus in Lisbon, next to the Monument to the Discoveries. The monument is at the spot where Vasco da Gama set out to discover the southeast passage from Europe to Asia, past the Cape of Good Hope. Vasco’s discovery marked the beginning of the Portuguese maritime empire. At the furthest tip of Europe, Portugal was perfectly situated to found su...

St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines conjures up images of a yachting haven and a quiet tourists' paradise. The conflicting demands of a growing population, a middle-income economy dominated by fishing, plantation agriculture and tourism, and environmental and social concerns, all contribute to marine stress on the limited, precious, but internationally important resources. While the vision exists ...

Vincent Walsh

Vincent Walsh is Professor of Human Brain Research at University College London. He was a Royal Society University Research Fellow for 10 years and now leads the Visual Cognition Group in the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN). His interests span visual perception, learning, time, space and number processing and synaesthesia. He engages widely in public communication projects and is a re...

Vincent Yeung

Mary in Early Christianity and Islam

This article explores the life and importance of Mary in Islam and Christianity, aiming at clarifying the criteria for which Mary has been revered in each tradition. It will be shown that Mary in Christianity is almost merely important because she was the mother of Jesus, while the Muslim reverence for her is based on her own noble characteristics. From the Muslim perspective, even if Mary had ...