Oliver Sacks contributes a wonderful foreword in which he documents the handbook's changing physical dimensions--from the early octavo editions to the nearly cubical 41st (still octavo but with 3,500 pages), to this monumental 85th edition. The handbook provides a concise source of data needed by R&D professionals, engineers, and students, including conversion factors, terminology and nomenclature, physical constants, and properties spanning the full range of the physical sciences. Updates include additions to several tables, including Aqueous Solubility of Organic Compounds and Thermal Conductivity of Liquids; a new table on Azeotropic Data for Binary Mixtures; and the return of topics such as coefficient of friction and miscibility of organic solvents. The latest recommended values of the Fundamental Physical Constants are included, and the appendix on mathematical tables has been revised by Dr. Daniel Zwillinger (editor of the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae). This new edition is distributed with a facsimile of the 116-page first edition which appeared in 1913. Annotation 漏2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)