Acid-base reactions, osmosis and other colligative properties, the bicarbonate buffer system, can all be categorized under the broader topic of "water chemistry", the environmental constraints that water-based life has had to adapt to. This context also aids discovery of the mechanisms that underlie each process, as shown by Gerald Pollack's discovery that osmosis is caused by a hydronium ion gradient produced from a hydroxide-rich "gel-phase" of water at membrane surfaces. To see the forest and the trees, gives you an information advantage.
