Tom Ough going barefoot in Victoria Park, east London, above and left

Change at the atomic level affects the molecular level and all the way up to society and other complex webs of interaction. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this kind of electron transfer had a cascading effect.”

Exciting bacteria stuff aside, the most important thing to say here is that the quality of the grounding research is not sufficient to justify its proponents’ claims. But another important thing to say here is that contact with nature is beneficial to us in ways whose mechanisms we are still only beginning to understand. So I will continue, when the mood takes me, to occasionally remove my flip-flops in the park. In my attempt to joylessly anatomise the pleasure of a brief barefoot walk, I have learnt nothing that is going to stop me enjoying it.

Contact with nature is beneficial in ways whose mechanisms we are only beginning to understand