A chemical process where tiny droplets of one liquid phase separate out and gather together within another liquid phase, creating a visible second phase.
From Latin 'coacervare' (to heap together), entered scientific English in the early 20th century when chemists studying colloids needed a term for this specific phase separation phenomenon.
Coacervation happens in your cells right now—it's how proteins and other molecules spontaneously organize into membrane-less compartments that can do specific jobs, and it might explain how life started without needing complex cell structures!
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