Chlorophyll the last step, the conversion of protochlorophyllide to chlorophyll, is light-dependent and such plants are pale (etiolated) if grown in darkness. Non-vascular plants and green algae have an additional light-independent enzyme and grow green even in darkness. Chlorophyll itself is bound to proteins and can transfer the absorbed energy in the required direction. Protochlorophyllide occurs mostly in the free form and, under light conditions, acts as a photosensitizer, forming highly toxic free radicals. Hence, plants need an efficient mechanism of regulating the amount of chlorophyll precursor. In angiosperms, this is done at the step of aminolevulinic acid (ALA), one of
Photon energy to date, very-high-energy gamma rays, have photon energies of 100 GeV to 100 TeV (10 to 10 electronvolts) or 0.016 microjoules to 0.016 millijoules. This corresponds to frequencies of 2.42 × 10 to 2.42 × 10 Hz. A photon with a wavelength equal to the Planck length would have an energy of about 7.671 × 10 eV or 1.229 × 10 joules (12.29 gigajoules). This is roughly the amount of energy produced by the world's most powerful coal-fired power station, the Taichung Power Plant, during a period of 2.25 seconds. During photosynthesis, specific chlorophyll molecules absorb red-light photons at a