Why do IQs vary across nations?

People who live in countries where disease is rife may have lower IQs because they have to divert energy away from brain development to fight infections, scientists in the US claim.

The controversial idea might help explain why national IQ scores differ around the world, and are lower in some warmer countries where debilitating parasites such as malaria are widespread, they say.

Researchers behind the theory claim the impact of disease on IQ scores has been under-appreciated, and believe it ranks alongside education and wealth as a major factor that influences cognitive ability.

The full story is here.  The original research paper is here.  I'm not sure the authors have a very good test against alternative hypotheses, but still a correlation remains after making some appropriate adjustments.

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