Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task you will be given a text passage from a trivia quiz. You should choose the category this question belongs to from these categories: History, Science, Social Science, Fine Arts, Literature. You can only choose one category, so if in doubt, please choose the closest match.

Mikhail Tsvet coined the term when he discovered this technique while doing research on plant pigments. He did this by making a solution of his samples with ether and alcohol, then running this solution over powdered sugar or calcium carbonate columns to extract pigments. Other varieties of this technique use paper or finely ground silica or alumina on top of a glass plate or film as the stationary phase, while gases and liquids are common mobile phases. For 10 points, name this laboratory technique that makes use of each component of a mixtures differing affinities for the stationary phase in order to separate out these components.
Science