In this video, we're going to begin our lesson on acids and bases. What you all need to know is that many biological processes are actually strongly affected by the concentration of dissolved hydrogen ions or H+ ions in the aqueous solution. The concentration of dissolved hydrogen ions can be abbreviated by brackets with an H+ in the middle. Anytime you see brackets in science, it means the concentration of hydrogen ions.
Acids and bases are substances that directly affect the concentration of hydrogen ions. The concentration of hydrogen ions is really important because that will strongly affect many biological processes that we'll talk about later in our course. In our next lesson video, we are going to talk more about how acids directly affect the hydrogen ion concentration. Later in a different video, we'll discuss how bases directly affect the hydrogen ion concentration. I'll see you all in our next lesson video to talk about acids.