Researchers have made a significant advance in surface science, introducing a new active mechanism of adsorption based on rotaxane molecules with pumping cassettes attached on a surface, according to a new study in the journal Science. University of Maine professor R. Dean Astumian, a theorist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is an author read more Astumian on research team exploring mechanisorption, a fundamentally new mechanism for active surface adsorption