Asparagine, which is found in foods such as meat, eggs, and dairy products, was once considered non-essential because it is also produced naturally by the body.

And that is true, for every organ except the brain, where the amino acid is essential for normal brain development. 

"The cells of the body can do without it because they use asparagine provided through diet. Asparagine, however, is not well transported to the brain via the blood-brain barrier," said senior co-author of the study Dr. Jacques Michaud, who found that brain cells depend on the local synthesis of asparagine to function properly. 

A person with a food allergy is more likely to be murdered than to die from a severe reaction, according to a new paper in Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

C/2012 S1, Comet ISON, is intriguing because it has never approached the sun before and that is scientifically terrific. 

Comet ISON began in the Oort cloud almost a light year away and has traveled for over a million years. Unlike more famous comets, Halley's as an example, it has never come this way before - and that means it is still made of pristine matter from the earliest days of the solar system's formation. Its top layers haven't been lost by a trip near the sun.

To study it as it approached Sol, a vast fleet of solar observation experiments have been watching. Would it break up or slingshot? 

Rip currents claim more lives in Australia on average each year than bushfires, floods, cyclones and sharks combined - but don't get too nervous, rip currents only cause about 21 confirmed human fatalities per year.

Rip currents are strong, narrow seaward-flowing currents that can easily carry unsuspecting swimmers significant distances offshore, leading to exhaustion, panic and often drowning.

An analysis of data from Australia's National Coronial Information System shows there was an average 21 confirmed deaths involving rips per year during the period 2004 to 2011.

Can you control noisemaking chaos? Brazilian planners hope so.

They'd rather not have the ear-splitting vuvuzela which took over the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Tens of thousands of those instruments blaring in packed stadiums became a major annoyance, disrupting players and even fans watching on TV. 

There has been a snowfall decrease in Canada's subarctic regions and that has led to worrisome desiccation of the regions' lakes - this has happened in the past also, of course, but it was less noticeable. 

Researchers came to this conclusion after studying 70 lakes near Old Crow, Yukon, and Churchill, Manitoba. Most of the lakes studied are less than one metre deep. According to the analysis, more than half of those located on relatively flat terrain and surrounded by scrubby vegetation show signs of desiccation. The problem stems chiefly from a decline in meltwater; for instance, from 2010 to 2012 average winter precipitation in Churchill decreased by 76 mm compared to the averages recorded from 1971 to 2000.