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Nature 459, 1032 (25 June 2009) | doi:10.1038/72501032a; Published online 24 June 2009

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Making the paper: Dewashish Upadhyay

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Ancient rocks bear traces of Earth's tumultuous early years.

Cratons are the oldest, most stable parts of Earth's crust, and as such hold clues to Earth's early evolution. Dewashish Upadhyay, a geochemist now at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, analysed the make-up of isotopes in rocks from India's Bastar craton and found that some of the rocks carry the signature of a differentiation event — the separation of materials with different geochemical properties.