I just search a bit about Jack Hills. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hills The last modified was last December. The actual paper http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo20... was received last July but published on Fed 23, 2014. So it took a while to confirm and accept by the reviewers using the new technique.

And Jack Hills seems to have caught a lot of attention as early as 2006. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Zircon/ and in this article, 4.4B crystal was mentioned. So the actual paper we are reading today is really about using the new technique to confirm the age of the crystal.

"Among the first important discoveries, says Watson, came out in 2001."

Just think about an art from 10, 50, 100, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 years ago. Then think about this 4.4B years ago. It isn't mind-blown; it's scary to think about time. It takes millions of years for rocks to crush into each other and make a planet. What is it like to see things from 4.4B ago? Then think about the galaxy out there. People, the universe is an awesome and scary place.

Here is another article with an image explaining the idea of 4.4B with a personal phone interview from the primary investigator.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/gem-found-on-austr...