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This review focuses on the characteristics and applications of biomaterials through the ages, ranging from the prehistoric times to the beginning of the era of modern medicine, which has been arbitrarily set to the middle of the 19th century, when aseptic procedures, antiseptic substances and modern anesthetics were developed. After a brief discussion on the definition of “biomaterial” from an historical point of view and a short introduction on the general history of surgery and dentistry, each material or class of materials will be presented with references listed in chronological order and, where possible, with their real, scientifically demonstrated effects on biological tissues. Particular attention has been given to references that are nowadays considered spurious or affected by translation errors or other kinds of biases.

The multiple mutations of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) virus have created variants with structural differences in both their spike and nucleocapsid proteins. While the functional relevance of these mutations is under continuous scrutiny, current findings have documented their detrimental impact in terms of affinity with host receptors, antibody resistance, and diagnostic sensitivity. Raman spectra collected on two British variant sub‐types found in Japan (QK002 and QHN001) are compared with that of the original Japanese isolate (JPN/TY/WK‐521), and found bold vibrational differences. These included: i) fractions of sulfur‐containing amino acid rotamers, ii) hydrophobic interactions of tyrosine phenol ring, iii) apparent fractions of RNA purines and pyrimidines, and iv) protein secondary structures. Building upon molecular scale results and their statistical validations, the authors propose to represent virus variants with a barcode specially tailored on Raman spectrum. Raman spectroscopy enables fast identification of virus variants, while the Raman barcode facilitates electronic recordkeeping and translates molecular characteristics into information rapidly accessible by users.