Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1861, noun of action from nucleate (v.), from Latin nucleatus, past participle of nucleare, from nucleus (see nucleus).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context physics English) The first stage of a phase transition in a small region. 2 (context biology English) The formation of cell nuclei.
Wikipedia
Nucleation is the first step in the formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or a new structure via self-assembly or self-organization. Nucleation is typically defined to be the process that determines how long an observer has to wait before the new phase or self-organized structure appears. Nucleation is often found to be very sensitive to impurities in the system. Because of this, it is often important to distinguish between heterogeneous nucleation and homogeneous nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation occurs at nucleation sites on surfaces in the system. Homogeneous nucleation occurs away from a surface.
Usage examples of "nucleation".
Electrical activity is up, helium emissions up, radon emissions up, foreshocks are occurring, though not directly within our nucleation zone.
Ellsworth-Beroza nucleation zone was now constant, showing ever-building seismic activity.
Across the world, scientists passed the nucleation points on to colleagues, and the scramble was on to encode research and data into quasi-crystal.
Electrical activity is up, helium emissions up, radon emissions up, foreshocks are occurring, though not directly within our nucleation zone.