In the twisted story of eugenics, the bad guy is all of us | Angela Saini

Francis Galton is rightly criticised for advancing this immoral, racist non-science. But remember, his ideas were mainstream

How should we remember historical figures who we know have done terrible things? It's a dilemma we face more often, as universities and public institutions critically examine their histories, reassessing the past with 21st-century eyes. And over the last year, University College London has been in the midst of a historical inquiry into its role as the institutional birthplace of eugenics - the debunked "science" that claimed that by selectively breeding humans we could improve racial quality.

We tend to associate eugenics with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, but it was in fact developed in London. Its founder was Francis Galton, who established a laboratory at UCL in 1904. Already, some students and staff have called on the university to rename its Galton lecture theatre.

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