One principle, three programmes.
Reversibility is a single idea with deep reach. A reversible process loses nothing — no information, no energy, no material — because every step can be retraced. That ambition shows up in three places at once: in software that never throws a bit away, in products designed to be taken apart and remade, and in the physical laws that say why forgetting costs heat. The Institute studies all three together.
Programmes
Programming →
Reversible computing and zero-energy programming — languages that run backwards, adiabatic logic, and the path to computation that approaches Landauer's limit.
Manufacturing →
Reversible and circular manufacturing — design for disassembly, remanufacturing and reuse, so products and materials cycle instead of becoming waste.
Physics →
The physics of reversibility — thermodynamic reversibility, time-reversal symmetry, and the deep link between entropy, information and computation.
Latest news
Releases, papers and policy from across the field — newest first.
Right to repair and product passports take effect across the EU
From this July, the EU Right to Repair Directive becomes applicable and the Digital Product Passport registry goes live — making reparability and disassembly data a legal default.
ProgrammingReversible Computation 2026 convenes in Torino
The field's main annual conference returns on 9–10 July, spanning reversible languages, circuits, quantum computing and the thermodynamics of computation.
PhysicsA universal recipe for extracting work without knowing the state
A 2026 result builds a single state-independent quantum process that still extracts work equal to the free energy of an unknown state, near the reversible bound.
ManufacturingCaterpillar reports 8,000 reman offerings and 150 million pounds taken back
Caterpillar's 2025 sustainability report highlights Cat Reman's 8,000-plus remanufactured offerings and 150 million pounds of end-of-life material returned in 2025.
PhysicsReal memory cells reveal a thermodynamic limit stricter than Landauer’s
Single-electron-resolved measurements on silicon DRAM showed bit erasure never reaches the Landauer bound, exposing a tighter, practically relevant limit on erasure energetics.
Upcoming events
Conferences and forums coming up across the field. The Institute does not run these events; it points you to them.
Reversible Computation 2026 (RC 2026) ↗
The 18th International Conference on Reversible Computation — the field's main annual venue, spanning reversible programming languages, circuits, quantum computing and the thermodynamics of computation.
PhysicsQuantum Thermodynamics Conference 2026 (QTD 2026) ↗
The annual conference on the thermodynamics of quantum systems and information — Landauer's principle, fluctuation theorems, Maxwell's demon and information engines.
ManufacturingWorld Circular Economy Forum 2026 (WCEF 2026) ↗
The tenth edition of the global forum on the circular economy — reuse, repair, remanufacturing and design for disassembly. In-person attendance is by invitation; online participation is free and open to all.
What reversibility means here
Nothing is erased
A reversible computation never discards information, so — by Landauer's principle — it need not dissipate the heat that erasure demands. Zero-energy programming is the goal.
Nothing is wasted
A reversible product can be non-destructively taken apart, repaired and remanufactured, keeping components and materials in use at their highest value rather than downcycled.
Nothing forgets the past
The microscopic laws of physics run equally well backwards in time. Irreversibility — and the arrow of time itself — is a statement about entropy, information and probability.