With this in mind, is it possible that basic biology is one of the driving forces behind economic growth?

From Disease, Biodiversity & the Wealth of Nations by Alex Berezow. Interesting topic. I am not sure I am ready to go with the article's conclusion (I suspect that they have the flow of causation backwards), but it is useful to discuss and mull.

With this in mind, is it possible that basic biology is one of the driving forces behind economic growth?

What really is worth highlighting though is the graphic that attaches to the article which shows the relationship between lattitude and national per capita income.

The questions about any phenomenon or explanation are 1) Is it real?, 2) Do we understand the root causes?, and 3) Can we change it? In this case the observation is that on average countries closer to the equator are poorer than those further away. This is a long ago observation which is not yet fully explained. The article touches on some of the speculated causes.

So is it real? Sure looks like it. Do we understand root causes? Probably not so much. Can we change it? Not knowing the root causes makes that kind of difficult. Starkly framing the questions that way forces us to consider more deeply an already complex issue.