About
The Reversibility Institute
The Reversibility Institute is a research and development institution built around a single, far-reaching idea: the reversible operation. We study processes that can be run forwards and backwards without loss — and we believe that designing systems this way is one of the most important levers we have for cutting waste, whether the waste is energy, information, or material.
What we study
Reversibility is not one field but a thread that runs through many. The Institute organises its work into three programmes, each with its own news, principles, research and industry coverage.
Why reversibility
Most of the cost of the systems we build comes from the steps that cannot be undone. A logic gate that erases a bit must, by Landauer's principle, dump heat into its surroundings. A product that is glued shut cannot be repaired, only discarded. An irreversible chemical or thermodynamic process produces entropy that can never be recovered. In each case the irreversibility is the loss.
Turn the problem around and a different design space opens up. If a computation never forgets, it need not dissipate. If a product can be taken apart, its parts and materials can be used again at full value. The Institute exists to map that design space and to connect the people working in it — across computer science, engineering and physics.
Get in touch
The Institute curates research, news and reference material on reversibility. If you are working on reversible computing, circular manufacturing, or the thermodynamics of information and would like your work listed, we would like to hear from you.