The process of calcium salts being deposited in body tissues or rocks, making them hard and rigid.
From Latin 'calcis' (lime) + '-fication' (the process of making). The term became standard in medical and scientific literature in the 1800s as researchers better understood how calcium accumulates in various tissues.
Calcification is why your bones get harder as you age and why sea creatures create their shells and corals build reefs—but it's also why arteries can become dangerously stiff, showing that the same process can be helpful or harmful depending on where it happens.
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