Astrid Sigel has studied languages and was an editor for the Metal Ions in Biological Systems series (until Volume 44) and also of the Handbooks on Toxicity of Inorganic Compounds (1988), on Metals in Clinical and Analytical Chemistry (1944; both with H G Seiler), and on Metalloproteins (2001; with Ivano Bertini) (Dekker, New York).