Editing Tim Berra (biologist) (section)

===Charles Darwin===
Fascinated as a child by the adventures of the [[HMS Beagle|HMS ''Beagle'']] and the naturalist [[William Beebe]], Berra has written several books on [[Charles Darwin]], Darwin's family and in 1977, Beebe. ''Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man'' was published in 2009, timed for the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 1809. Berra became interested in the children of Darwin and his wife [[Emma Wedgwood]]. The children had often been mentioned in other books, but little had been written about their lives, Berra researched the ten children and published ''Darwin and His Children: His Other Legacy'' in 2013. Darwin and his wife were first cousins, which interested Berra on how this might have affected the family genetics. Their [[consanguine marriage]] possibly affected the children with "reduced fertility" compared with similar families of their class during that time. Seven children lived to adulthood, only three of those had children.{{R|Herald}} Darwin himself suffered from ill-health, "severe digestive problems and a skin disease that made shaving so painful that he grew his distinctive beard". Berra asked researchers in Spain who had used computer modeling to understand the genetics of the [[Habsburg family tree]] to look into the genetics of the Darwin family. The result was that there was an increased risk of low-fertility and bacterial infections, which at least two of Darwin's children died of.{{R|NYT Darwin}}

In 2016 ''[[The Washington Post]]'' contacted Berra to weigh in on the importance of finding a letter from Darwin that had been stolen 30-years prior by an intern at the [[Smithsonian]]. Berra explained that while Darwin was trained as a geologist and would have been "interested in what was going on in America", this letter would be one of over 7,000 letters written by Darwin and anything by Darwin "is of historical significance and scientific significance".{{R|Darwin letter}} Berra has pushed for the city of Darwin to fully embrace the man and legacy that they are named for. In 2014 Berra said that when he started coming to Darwin in 2001 he was "struck by the fact that there was nothing visible about him [Darwin] to the public." Today, the ''Beagle'' ship bell chimes and bust of Darwin reside in Darwin's Civic Center, and the former Northern Territory University is renamed Charles Darwin University.{{R|Vangopoulos}} Berra gave the keynote address on Darwin in 2009 at the 200th anniversary of the birth of Darwin held at the Darwin Convention Center in Darwin.{{R|Whitmire}}