An Interesting Example of Computer-Aided Design

This is the Gomboc (site, article). It's really just a toy... a knickknack, but in its design is an amazing discovery: A geometric shape (importantly: of a single material and density throughout)that can only be balanced in one direction. In other words, because of it's shape alone, it can only come to balance with one specific surface on the bottom, no matter how much effort is made to keep it balanced otherwise. The discovery of this shape took years of computer research design; although the Hungarian scientists who created it do admit that the final shape they discovered does seem to have been produced by Mother Nature first... in the functionality of tortoise shells.