Nucleation is the first step in the formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or a new structure via self-assembly or self-organisation. Nucleation is typically defined to be the process that determines how long an observer has to wait before the new phase or self-organised 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 heterogenous nucleation and homogeneous nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation occurs at nucleation sites on surfaces in the system. Homogenous nucleation occurs away from a surface.