Nothing puts me in the holiday spirit like cold hard science. That's why the news that German scientists are planning to clone the perfect Christmas tree has me feeling so festive. The plan is to increase the percentage of saplings that grow to mature Christmas trees of a popular species. This should make the tree selection process a lot simpler, since they'll all be pretty much identical.

Many of you are probably setting up the Christmas tree this weekend, and if you're anything like us, it's a daunting task. The pines and spruces of our youth, were always decorated with love, care, and not a little shouting. They also usually left one with the impression that we had jammed all the ornaments, tinsel, and lights at our disposal into a cannon, fired it in the general direction of the tree, and moved on with our lives. The University of Sheffield's Maths Society -- presumably sick of watching people like me decorate like an animal -- has offered up a Christmas miracle -- a series of calculations that, if followed, will get your tree looking picture perfect, from an exacting tinsel-to-tree ratio to a star or angel that's just the right height.