user65518: This is the question, asked nine days ago:
A man of 100 kg, what will be the masses of his living human cells, dead human cells, extracellular matrix/matrices, bacteria, and the remainder?
As I have continued to research the question it has become apparent that I haven't been able to find out even what is the mass of the ECM of the heart, nor that of any other organ. The reason may be that the word "mass" is too common a word, with other senses as in "a large mass of tissue". Or it may be that this aspect is not of interest to biologists (and quite hard to measure?), and the ECM has not caught the attention of popularizers of science until very recently. I mean, the amount of each element in the periodic table the body is well publicized.
Whatever the reason, I am thinking that maybe I  should ask a smaller, easier question, such as, what is the mass of ECM in the heart, or what is the percentage of ECM by mass in any organ. Would this go down well with Biology.SE, and if it would, would it be okay to keep the hard question, or would the new question get flagged as a duplicate.
I suspect that if (as I would quite like to do, and might seem logical) in the hope of getting an answer to at least one of them, I posted separate questions for the mass of the ECM of the brain, the kidneys, the liver, the heart, the biceps muscle, and so on, someone will object. But if I made a question asking for the ECM mass of ANY organ, I would be flagged as asking for a list, right?

user52598: I would suggest that your question can be improved by focusing it on what it is that you are actually trying to learn by means of asking this question.
As with many things in biology, there are fuzzy areas where definitions aren't clear, such as "what exactly counts as extracellular?" This fuzziness diffuses the focus of the question and makes it harder to answer effectively.
As such, I would suggest you approach this as a series of questions where you focus on specific aspects of interest to you. For example, it seems like the ECM is of primary interest, so what is it that you're really trying to learn about it? Something like "how much ECM is there in our bodies"?  Then don't constrain the measurement to mass, but see what people think is a good way of quantifying ECM.
Focusing a question generally doesn't mean adding more qualifiers: that often just makes it less likely that an answer will be available. Rather, it is often better done by clarifying the context and purpose behind the question, such that a reader can tell clearly whether an answer is actually sufficient to address it.

65518: <p>This is the question, asked nine days ago:
<a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/104448/a-man-of-100-kg-what-will-be-the-masses-of-his-living-human-cells-dead-human-c">A man of 100 kg, what will be the masses of his living human cells, dead human cells, extracellular matrix/matrices, bacteria, and the remainder?</a></p>
<p>As I have continued to research the question it has become apparent that I haven't been able to find out even what is the mass of the ECM of the heart, nor that of any other organ. The reason may be that the word &quot;mass&quot; is too common a word, with other senses as in &quot;a large mass of tissue&quot;. Or it may be that this aspect is not of interest to biologists (and quite hard to measure?), and the ECM has not caught the attention of popularizers of science until very recently. I mean, the amount of each element in the periodic table the body is well publicized.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason, I am thinking that maybe I  should ask a smaller, easier question, such as, what is the mass of ECM in the heart, or what is the percentage of ECM by mass in any organ. Would this go down well with Biology.SE, and if it would, would it be okay to keep the hard question, or would the new question get flagged as a duplicate.</p>
<p>I suspect that if (as I would quite like to do, and might seem logical) in the hope of getting an answer to at least one of them, I posted separate questions for the mass of the ECM of the brain, the kidneys, the liver, the heart, the biceps muscle, and so on, someone will object. But if I made a question asking for the ECM mass of ANY organ, I would be flagged as asking for a list, right?</p>
 52598: <p>I would suggest that your question can be improved by focusing it on what it is that you are actually trying to learn by means of asking this question.</p>
<p>As with many things in biology, there are fuzzy areas where definitions aren't clear, such as &quot;what exactly counts as extracellular?&quot; This fuzziness diffuses the focus of the question and makes it harder to answer effectively.</p>
<p>As such, I would suggest you approach this as a series of questions where you focus on specific aspects of interest to you. For example, it seems like the ECM is of primary interest, so what is it that you're really trying to learn about it? Something like &quot;how much ECM is there in our bodies&quot;?  Then don't constrain the measurement to mass, but see what people think is a good way of quantifying ECM.</p>
<p>Focusing a question generally doesn't mean adding more qualifiers: that often just makes it less likely that an answer will be available. Rather, it is often better done by clarifying the context and purpose behind the question, such that a reader can tell clearly whether an answer is actually sufficient to address it.</p>
