emulsifying

The seed flour is a traditional emulsifying, flavouring and thickening agent used to prepare cakes, bread, couscous, baby food and local beer.

The result is a sprightly, absorbing and charmingly earnest book that manages a minor miracle, the near-complete emulsifying of science and the "real world," ingredients too often kept stubbornly, senselessly apart.

It is also used as an emulsifying, wetting, and dispersing agent, as a pesticide, as well as a component of the oil dispersant Corexit which was used in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.