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Descriptions of phase separation in condensed matter have so far been classified into a solid model (model B) and a fluid model (model H). In the former the diffusion is the only transport process, while in the latter material can be transported by both diffusion and hydrodynamic flow. It has recently been found that in addition to these well-known models a new model of phase separation, theviscoelastic model', is required to describe the phase-separation behaviour of a dynamically asymmetric mixture, which is composed of fast and slow components. Suchdynamic asymmetry'can be induced by either the large size difference or the difference in glass-transition temperature between the components of a mixture. The former often exists in so-called complex fluids, such as polymer solutions, micellar solutions, colloidal suspensions, emulsions and protein solutions. The latter, on the other hand, can exist in any mixture …