When should I be using “NOT NULL” in a MySQL table and are there any benefits?

create_table :articles do |t|
  t.integer :user_id, :allow_null => false
  t.integer :genre_id, :allow_null => false
  t.string :url, :limit => 255, :allow_null => false
  t.string :title, :limit => 60, :allow_null => false
  t.text :summary, :limit => 350, :allow_null => false
  t.integer :votes_count, :default => 0
  t.datetime :published_at, :default => nil
  t.timestamps
end