boycott mcpofort. mcpoverty. you can get the latest news online at aljazeera.com. on america tonight, a short cease fire, ukraine erupts and it's spreading and what is at stake. he is accused of drugging and raping women in five states, could former new orleans player lead a double life. >> he began to give shots to the

girls. >> reporter: on the front lines with the taliban, the view from inside with one of the very few journalists ever to travel and speak directly with taliban fighters. >> the taliban soldiers that i'm together with are the last two men and it looks like they are not as popular as they were. >> reporter: good evening and thanks for joining us, it's clear at this hour that the fiery clashes and burning anger that drew the attention to square in kiev have spilled well beyond the capitol city. this time a day ago the president announced there was a truce at hand and leaders and opposition held their breath but

it was clear what hope there had been to the end of a standoff had just evaporated. >> since the president viktor yanukovych claims a truce with opposition and declares intent to start negotiation with the aim of ending blood shed even more blood is spilled. within hours protesters are in independent square sparking renewed and violent clashes with the police. less than 12 hours after the truce announcement protesters control the square from security forces and more than a dozen officers are taken hostage. during the show down in the square at least eight people die. over the next few hours sharp into national response with a government targeted for blame and the skier and her coach leave the sochi games in protest. the olympic committee reports more than a dozen ukraine athletes will not compete and they are taking up sanctions

against ukraine and within hours individualing showing them showing live rounds at protesters goes viral and they draft sanctions and an arms embargo against ukraine and germany and france and poland go to meetings in kiev with government and opposition leaders and russia is responding to the president viktor yanukovych request and the european union will impose sanctions and president obama is looking at a range of options on how to respond. he has not lost the support of the world but also a large part of his own country and this is especially true in the pest earn pat -- part of the country close to europe and kiev is hanging on through force but in the west his battle may already

have been lost. in a city near the polish border protesters have taken control attacking and occupying government buildings and installations, a movement that spread across towns in the border region and they have control of six police station and raided the headquarters of the prosecutor and destroying criminal records and seized a major military installation raiding the weapons before torching it and they are in full retreat giving up along with other units in nearby towns insisting they will not carry out orders against protester and little loyalty for the current regime regime and yanukovich is in no position to take it back and an advisor to ukraine says the military is unlikely to be much help. >> the military has not been

brought in because it's too dangerous to bring it in because it can split and kiev is interesting because they have a massive popular at the same time as president yanukovich and his government sits in kiev. that's why we are seeing all the fighting almost in kiev while in the other parts of the country. it's clear who is in charge. >> reporter: western ukraine's ties to europe go back senso ces and nationals in the eastern part of the country has more influence. >> 95% of the vote and yanukovich and his communist allies had 90% of the vote in the eastern-most parts. and in terms of population, these two parts of the country approximately equally large. >> reporter: yanukovich's chaos

in kiev the ancient divisions have become a political reality. following up with the latest from kiev and ukraine we turn to a film maker who has been going through the violence and joins us now via skype and i understand you were out there in the last few minutes. >> i was, yeah, i'm staying pretty close. i was just out there as they were -- a crowd of people had gathered because a bus with ministry troops was leaving and people did not want them to leave and troops captured from this among's battle. >> reporter: troops that were captured? >> yeah. the demonstrators pushed back the troops from the perimeter of the square and in that skirmish they conquered some of the police or the interior ministry

troops and generally younger guys they put on the front line and they brought them to one of the buildings that the demonstrators are occupying and held them there for i guess throughout the course of the day. >> reporter: i understand that throughout the course of this day that you have been going around, you have been in some of the areas, one of them a makeshift morge. >> it was a field hospital and in the lobby of a hotel ukraine which is right on the square. and one of the main skirmishes was the street and running parallel to the hotel where people were shot and there was live gunfire going on this morning. so there were several people that were shot and they were being operated on and treated in the makeshift hospital in the hotel lobby. >> reporter: i know you have covered both the activities of these last few months and also that you were there during the orange revolution, i guess it's

six, seven years ago now, what have you seen, do you see a similarity? do you see a change in protesters, the opposition to the government? >> yeah, there is definitely, it started out with a lot of similarities in the way things looked on the square, they were tense on the square, the original kind of tactics used for demonstrating were very similar but it has changed psychologically where people really felt like viktor yanukovich was a figure and going to come to power and make everything good. now they don't really have that faith in politicians since the orange revolution caused so miss disillusionment of not reaching expectations of people and more self reliant and don't necessarily have that much faith in politicians, opposition

politicians. they consider them their allies and not giving them this kind of benefit of the doubt at all like they did in 2004. >> do you see the strength of protesters growing not only in kiev but in the west like we referred to do you see a sense of growing, digging in by the protesters? >> absolutely. the government has failed to realize is the more they try to use force to kind of crush the movement the more it radicalizes people and there is no fear and i met people who arrived in the past 24 hours on the square. a lot of those are from western ukraine that are coming to support. it seems like they are really digging in. they cleaned out the -- there was a firewall going on and they cleaned out all the debris and used it to rebuild the perimeter

stronger than it was before by the time it was dark today because everyone is helping and you have old ladies breaking bricks on the ground and putting it in sacks so guys can carry them to the barricade and i saw a friend with a wheel, a tire to bring to the barricade and a younger person who was helping out in the hospital. so it's just really kind of self organizing. it's pretty incredible to watch actually but they are definitely digging in and it doesn't seem like losing is an option unless they die. i mean, that is what it seems like. >> reporter: we hope there is not more death and we will continue to watch and thank you very much for joining us on skype from kiev. >> thank you for having me. >> reporter: we move across the world to another set of protests which turned deadly as well, to venezuela where the death toll is rising. she grabbed my hand and at that

moment there was a shot to her head and she got dizzy. i didn't know it was a gunshot. >> reporter: genesis, a 22-year-old beauty queen was shot in the head during protests on wednesday and the 5th person to die in demonstrations which quite quickly turned violence and they gained momentum and clashes between students and security forces and demonstrators in venezuela are calling for the president's resignation. since the opposition leader lopez arrest on tuesday, the original murder and terrorism charges against him have been dropped but he has been charged with arson and conspiracy which could get him up to ten years in jail. with a meeting with officials he called lopez an fascist and issued a stern warning to protesters. >> translator: for the coup, for each violent incident that happens in this country, he is

responsible and one of them is in jail. once more one by one they will take the same road, the same cell, i have no doubt of this. >> reporter: another conflict from the freedom to protest to freedom of the press, an update on our al jazeera colleges still detain in the prison after 54 days. in an egyptian court on thursday fahmy and peter greste and mohamed said they were not guilty on joining a terrorist organization and it's arranged until march 4 for the judge to consider the matter in private and the three are among 20 journalists facing similar charges and al jazeera rejects the charges and demanding immediate release of staff and the managing director of al jazeera english said we are deeply disappointed that mohamed and fahmy and peter greste were not released from prison and

it's baseless, unacementable and wholly unjustified. when we return to america tonight a former football star and popular player stands accused of living a double life and committing disturbing crimes against women. also ahead on the front lines with the taliban, a rare view from inside as a team of fighters moves against bases in afghanistan.

>> no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. opening doors ... opening possibilities. taking the impossible from lab ... to life. on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneak-peak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. techknow - ideas, invention, life. on al jazeera america

on to a troubling story that involves multiple allegations of drugs, rape and a superbowl champion, former nfl star and new orleans saints player darren zapper is accused of drugging and raping women in several cities including la and he told a judge there he is not guilty but as america tonight reports the list of troubling allegations against sharper continues to grow. >> despite the stunning moves on the field selected five times as one of the best player in the nfl darren sharper is shocking the fans for what he does off the field and he is the subject of sex crime investigation in florida, louisiana, nevada, arizona and california. he is accused of knocking women out with strong medication and

raping them. in la he is facing 7 combined counts of rape and drug charges connected with incidents late last year and early this year. in florida a woman came forward last month to report a sex crime incident in 2012 and detectives there investigated a similar case in 2011. in new orleans court records show detectives found his dna on a swab taken from one woman who claims she had drinks with sharper and blacked out in september and she revealed sharper on top of her sexually assaulting her when she came to. records show he is accused of possessing prescription drugs which is a generic form of ambian and morphine. >> he mixed drinks and shots and began to give the shots to the girls. >> reporter: tempe, arizona police say they are investigating similar accusations that he provided drinks laced with drugs in an

effort to knock out three women in november. but tempe report shows one woman reported feeling dizzy like the room was spinning and it was difficult to speak. after sharper mixed and served shots at her apartment and she claims she witnessed him naked, crouched over her friend having sex with her. the reports says sharper told the women he didn't really remember what happened the next morning. i guess i could have done that, i'm really sorry one woman reported him saying. >> they didn't know what was going on but felt they had been sexually assaulted. >> reporter: they found traces of ambian in a glass used to mix the shots and one woman said he had given her the popular drug molly in the past and they did not go on record but said he would be fully exonerated. the new orleans unit said the attorney campbell told them in january that sharper did nothing wrong. >> it just shocks me. i really hope it's not true.

i really do. like i said i just if this is true, this is just not the darren sharper i saw in new orlea orleans. >> reporter: the criminal investigation is startling news for breast cancer survivor cindy wilie and she mingled at the football camp for her headlined by sharper and other nfl stars. >> 102% women and strictly a women's function to learn about football and to come out and have a good time and support the american cancer society. >> reporter: this is video from the event's website showing he played a big role in the event teaching women about the game. >> we know fans research football and watch football and learn a lot about it. >> reporter: sharper also visited with many women at the event's cocktail hour. >> you were telling me about what his interaction was with all of the women at the event, you felt like it was kind of

appropriate. >> he was never, never, never unappropriate. not at all. i never saw anything. i never saw him ever hitting on anybody. there was a lot of very attractive women there, i never saw any of that. we spent a lot of time in the general vicinity that he was, so we saw him interact with a lot of people. i still am really shocked about the whole thing. >> reporter: america tonight reached out to sharper through his la attorneys who declined to give a statement on the record. for now his case presses ahead in an la court. lori with al jazeera. >> reporter: sharper is due back in court on april 15th and while he has not been tried or convicted, there are questions about possible patterns of behavior and we are joined by aaron nelson who is a forensic and clinical psychologist and professor at the university of arizona college of medicine in phoenix and appreciate you being with us dr. nelson and we don't want to make conclusions about

guilt or innocence in this particular case but help us understand. this is rape in a way that we don't think of it perhaps. the kinds of allegations we are talking about is something different than someone in the dark of the night for example pursuing a victim. >> well, sure, yes. there is a spectrum when it comes to sexual assault or inner personal violence of different offenders from as you mentioned the stranger rapist that is hiding in the dark as opposed to someone who may be an acquaintance of the victims. but the one thing they all have in common, every sexual assault offender, the thread that holds them together is a wreckless disregard for the feelings and the person hood of the victim. >> reporter: we talk a lot about rape being an act of violence, not necessarily about sex itself. so when you talk about the use of drugs and something like

this, this is about control. >> you're absolutely right. one of the most common miss conceptions that we try to combat is that rape or sexual assault has a sexual connotation in the classic way. it is not sexual and it's not about you know some sort of mutual attraction or interpersonal sexual arousal and it's about over powering a victim and usely to feed some profound inadequacy in the offender. >> reporter: there are different categories of people who commit sexual assault in this way and talk about narcissists. >> if we think about a continuum of behavior, we have a smaller percentage at one end of folks who are sadist and aroused by the violence itself is one end

of the spectrum and the other end of the spectrum are those people who violate the sanctity of another person based on their own selfish inability to see that another person is not interested in them. >> reporter: in this particular case and we are not making conclusions about guilt or innocence and this case has not been tried yet, but these allegations we've heard there were other people involved, other people present nearby when these alleged assaults were taking place. how would that fit into a notion of control or act of violence? how does that fit in? >> well, you know, when we talk about sexual assault, it is always a form of violence. but when you think about that need for power, someone feeding the sort of pervasive inadequacy

it's understandable that how someone could be further fueled by being able to have control over one person and multiple victims and others who are present when a crime is taking place, they have the psychological consequences oftentimes as well. >> reporter: very interesting case to watch and we appreciate your insight in helping us understanding what might be going on here and dr. nelson from the university of arizona college of medicine, phoenix and thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> reporter: when we return, a rare view from inside the fight. >> they are running towards the base now and trying to raise the base. i need to stick with them even though it's really dangerous. >> reporter: on the front lines with the taliban, an extraordinary, up close view from a journalist who risked all for this story.

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now, the stories making headlines on now, a snapshot of stories making headlines on america tonight, two men accused in the

2011 beating of a san francisco fan outside of dodgers stadium plead guilty to charges in the case and plead to a count of assault and the other a count of mayhem and he suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the attack. the execution of convicted killer michael taylor will go on as planned with a supplier of pentobarbatol and asked for a background check of the new pharmacy involved after a settlement with inhumane drugs with an oklahoma pharmacy this week. a detainee at guantanamo bay plead guilty and the al-qaeda operative helped plan the deadly attack of an oil tanker off the coast of yemen and testify as part of a plow deal, since 2009

nato dedicated billions of dollars for an afghan army and 37,000 troops remain in afghanistan and the success or failure of afghans manning their bases will determine the fate of the country as well as the wisdom of the u.s. strategy. in a rare exclusive look at afghanistan's war through the eyes of the taliban al jazeera's fault lines and danish journalist were embedded with self proclaimed taliban fighters during an opposition in logar province. >> i'm sitting at the back of a motor bike driven by a taliban soldier. this evening we heard the sound of the drones. to be honest i feel quite nervous. they take me to a safe house where a number of taliban fighters are checking their

weapons. for several days i'm with the taliban, they only tell me to stop filming once. but i'm acutely aware i would not have been allowed her to film them unless they wanted the world to see what they showed me. >> the leaders always had a certain media savvy and used the media to establish their point of view and get their point across, they should. we certainly do. >> they have always been actually fairly sophisticated in use of communications and i think that allowing cameras in and doing interviews like this is just another example. >> reporter: their commander is a 23-year-old man called misan,

a veteran he claims of numerous battles against both the government and nato troops. >> translator: . >> reporter: at the moment we are sitting and waiting here in the secret hide out. i'm not allowed to disclose where we are. >> the atmosphere is a little bit tense. people are preparing themselves. >> reporter: i'll be going with them when they head out. >> i think it's 3:00 in the morning and i think we are going

to leave and maybe one hour, one and a half hour but i'm not really sure. they are changing the plans all the time. >> reporter: then they get the signal. we are on our way to the place where they are going to fight a battle early in the morning. the plan is, they told me, is to capture afghan national army base. the only thing i know is that they say they are going to fight until they capture the base. they are not going to withdraw. >> reporter: joining us now from copenhagen is the journalist you saw in the report and explain how you were able to get access to the taliban, why

-- why were they willing to work with you? >> i got the access because i used some middlemen, some contacted who had tribal connections to the taliban in this district in nogar. the think is with the tribal connections they sometimes surpass loyalty. for example you can go to an area where afghan national army soldiers do not attack taliban fighters because they are of the same tribe and have a cease fire. so of course this tribal connection can also be used to get access to an environment like this for journalist. >> reporter: you are a freelanfree lance journalist but being with al jazeera did it give you access? >> i got access before i told them what tv station it was and they gave me the green light before al jazeera. afterwards when they gave me the

green light they were interested in knowing which channel it was going to be broadcasted in and i told them it was al jazeera. so i would say it's 50/50. >> reporter: i have to ask you because on a previous trip to afghanistan you were kidnapped, you were held hostage, why did you decide to go forward this time? did you feel you could trust them? >> i felt i could trust them. i was extremely nervous anyway because the thing is that i actually felt much more comfortable last time i went to afghanistan and when i tried to get access to the taliban and do actually almost the same story that i did this time, but last time i found out, you know, it was my own research and information i got afterwards for people who investigated my case that it was a set up. it was a local taliban group that kidnapped me but it wasn't

something and wasn't sure the leadership of the taliban they had knowledge about because journalist got in touch with them and asked them about incidents and said they had not a clue what happened so i was very nervous this time and it's almost six years ago and it was almost kind of a personal failure for me when it happened and i was quite eager to overcome it and at the same time i think it's an extremely important story to tell because it's seldom you get access to the other side. so we had a war for 12 years and we had very few documentaries from inside the ranks of the taliban so it's extremely important for the americans, for the western audience to know why these people keep on fighting against nato and afghan government and what kind of people they are. >> reporter: and we are going to ask you to stand by here because as you know this is extraordinary access that you

have had to the taliban and we want our viewers to see more of your reporting here because the afghan army routinely faces strikes by taliban fighters and so as we witnessed in this fight last october in the town of shark near kabul. >> the district in afghanistan. and it's moments away as a group of taliban fighters prepare to launch an attack on an afghan army base. they have not told me exactly when they are going to attack. they just said it's going to happen around sunrise. and then suddenly the fighting begins.

the taliban's heavy machine guns is ready. these taliban have little or no formal military training. and they fight back. and the things i'm going to

plan, their machine gun still isn't working. they leave the gunner to fix it while they go to support their attack from another side. to allow the rest of the taliban to enter the base, three suicide bombers are then sent to blowup the main gate. but they have to first award heavy fire coming from inside. the taliban fighters, they are running towards the base now and trying to raid the base. i need to stick with them even though it's really dangerous i don't know what to do so i'm just running after them.

there is a helicopter. the helicopter is there so the taliban run for cover. it's a private helicopter. [gunfire] there are 200 meters of open ground between the ball and the base. the taliban command fire and

harass and treat and the afghan army has to be there and actually try to create an environment over time that is going to allow the country to function. they are not going to go out and sort of come out of garrison and engage in hand to hand combat with the taliban. it makes no sense. >> and the mortars are landing where we are, close to some of the other guys behind us and close to us also. >> reporter: the battle has been going on for about an hour and a half now and the afghan army soldiers under attack inside received no support from other bases. the taliban had hoped this would be a victory. but it's becoming clear that they are facing far greater resistance than they had

expected. the taliban soldiers i'm together with have lost two men and they are not as positive as they were before they started attacking the base. and for these fighters it looks like the situation might be about to get worse. >> reporter: journalist rejoins us now to talk more about her extraordinary reporting there in afghanistan. and, you know, you expressed the difficulty that this taliban team had with being able to fire their own machine gun. you said that they didn't have formal training, they really had a lot of difficulty there. did it give you some inclination to understand how strong a fighting force the taliban is today?

>> obviously, you know, you can't generalize about the taliban. it's very different how they are from area to area. for example, the taliban on another time i did not manage to finish it. it was actually documentary and i tried to do it in konar and super professional and really experienced fighters and seemed like somebody who had trained a lot and i've seen taliban who were pesants like these guys just taking up arms. so, yes, they are not professional trained a lot of them and most of the, how can i say it, the vantage they get in the battlefield is mostly moral, because of their moral and actually they are not afraid of some of them, you know, they are not so afraid of dying because for them it's a win-win situation, either they get killed and go to paradise or they win the battle.

so it's the moral and i would which is the difference more than the professional skills. >> reporter: i want to ask why you think they let you video almost everything they did? >> i was actually quite surprised. i expected that they would actually tell me what to film and not to film and control a lot of the things i was doing. but they actually they seemed very honest about them wanting to let me understand what they were about. you know, and in these clips that you have just shown it's just about the battles, but i have also done a lot of other footage from everyday life in their areas. and actually like it said in the movie, i was never told to shut off the camera but once, it was in the battlefield because a commander got disappointed with two people getting killed and he

was stressed i suppose. they were actually quite open surprisingly. >> thank you for joining us from your home base in copenhagen. ♪ stay with our in-depth look at the taliban after the break and how strong a force do u.s. officials think it is now and what does that mean for the future of afghanistan. ahead on america tonight the pot path. >> welcome to the click and thank you for joining us. >> reporter: amsterdam's mayor and what they learned after dozens of years and what the dutch offer to the american pot business. >> this is close to five grams and roughly five grams. >> how many joints can you make with that? >> three joints out of a gram. >> reporter: she goes dutch friday on america tonight. the stream is uniquely

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we follow-up with more on the fault lines exclusive look at today's taliban and the threat to u.s. security and he was former advisor to crystal commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan and the david general petreaus and we have a former u.n. official who over saw negotiations with the taliban and both of you have seen these clips of the taliban today as it were. matt, can i ask what your perception was? this was a sense this is looking

like a rag-tag group of fighters. what is today's taliban's strength? >> well of course it does appear that way this that particular attack and many attacks look something like that but of course one has to remember that there are some 200, 300 and even more attacks than that happening every week in afghanistan. and of particular importance is the number of people that they are killing in their attacks is higher now than it has ever been since 2001. they are killing some 650 on average some 650 people a month and many of those are afghan police and soldiers. so i think even though they may not look like a very effective fighting force in actual fact they are killing a great many afghan soldiers and police and it is a real problem for the

progovernment forces. >> reporter: and, mark, you have worked with the afghan army and helped to set them up. is this the sort of threat that is really disturbing to them? i mean moving on an afghan and ana base yet without much consequence. >> i actually think from the videos you see something really wonderful and that is the ana of 2014 is not the afghan national army, back of 2003, 4, 5 or 6 and they deliberately assessed what was going on, they are under attack and they don't worry about, in other words, they are not worried about being overrun here and taking deliberate action and there was a comment about they have not been supported in almost an hour here and they didn't need to be and they are holding their position just fine and when they needed to call in support from a helicopter or otherwise they did just fine so this is an afghan national army that is much more capable than it was a decade

ago. >> reporter: looking at both the players here, ana and taliban or resurgent taliban, are there going to be elections in afghanistan and the longer term decision to do with the agreement with the united states or the bsa as it's being called? >> the challenge is you have a capable afghan national security force, the fact is the taliban and making some tactical gains the challenges is they are killing civilians as well and means the insurgency is underway and they are working on the drivers of that and that is weak rule of law, weak governmental institutions because without that all the security in the world be will not matter in the long run. >> reporter: matt, do you see an opportunity for optimism moving forward through the next

few months? >> first of all i just point out it's a cause of concern, the taliban are killing 3 or 400 policemen a month and it's worth reflecting on that, it's posing a real problem for afghan national security forces. but i think that looking forward, i think what it underscores is the taliban are not going away. and if you consider the international withdraw, the cuts in aid, the general disengagement from afghanistan and what we need to look for is reconciliation. an overwhelming majority of afghans say the only way this will end is if there is some kind of agreement between the government and the taliban, and that is what the international community should now be looking to support and require mediation for example, and should be a mediator like on syria and meeting and trying to coordinate efforts and move that forward.

>> reporter: a quick thought from you here and we talked with our correspondent from kabul, jennifer glasse and has been reporting from kabul for the last three years and talks about the insecurity now and no one knows what is going to happen in the next few months. >> our war may be over, the u.s. and nato war but the war in afghanistan is far from over and what is going to have to happen is not just an increase effort by the afghan national security forces but again an increased effort by the international community focusing on these nonmilitary issues, rule of law and governance et cetera. my concern is without a bilateral security agreement there will be no possibility of the types of nato forces including u.s. forces required to continue training the afghans. >> reporter: thank you for being with us and we will continue to pursue this conversation as well and mark jacobson and crystal and matt

walledman and thank you for being here. next month fault lines will air more of the exclusive report on the front lines with the taliban, this is a two-part series and air march 21 and march 28 on al jazeera america. and ahead tonight in our final thoughts of the hour, a big breakthrough, the life-saving prototype and the under graduate who helped design it. we will take you right in the lab next. news was happening. >> here are the stories we're following. >> find out what happened and what to expect. >> international outrage. >> a day of political posturing. >> every morning from 5 to 9 am al jazeera america brings you more us and global news than any other american news channel. >> tell us exactly what is behind this story. >> from more sources around the world. >> the situation has intensified here at the border. >> start every morning, every day 5am to 9 eastern. >> with al jazeera america. real reporting that brings you the world.

giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. s.

♪ s. finally tonight, college is not just about the books anymore. finally tonight college is not just about the books anymore, to make a difference professors are teaching students how to apply classroom principles in the lab. and al jazeera's allen takes us to a college in seattle where the concept could be a big breakthrough. >> on a winter day when the promise of spring bright ens the campus you will find chris, in

the lab, solving problems. >> it has curved channels that are circular cross sections that is able to transport a tissue course. >> reporter: translation, he is working on a better way to diagnose pancreatic cancer one of the deadliest forms of the disease. traditionally a cancer biopsy would involve slicing the tissue and putting it on a slide and viewing it through a microscope like this. but this technology could give pathologists a much more complete spinning three dimensional view and something that can tell them a lot more about what is happening at a microscopic level. chris is 20 in his third year of college and serving a kind of education educational aprenticeship and they pair students with teachers for one on one monitoring. chris gets part-time pay and works directly with post-doctoral researcher, ronnie doss who says he is learning

too. >> awesome, yeah, it's awesome. i mean, usually i have my way of doing things so it doesn't always translate well but when you have the right mix it works out perfectly. >> reporter: this kind of collaboration is a growing trend giving under graduates hands-on lab time and other research opportunities and available experience for the next level of education and later career competition. here under graduate research participation has nearly doubled in the last five years and nationally the nonprofit council on under graduate research has seen membership triple in the last decade. >> they come to grad school and hit the ground running. >> reporter: he is already running hard and his teachers say his work on tissue imaging and analysis is ground breaking, the technology he developed is worth patenting. >> reporter: no one has demonstrated what chris has done in the lab as far as we know and one of the reasons we filed a

patent. >> he gives credit to mentors and time in the lab for what could be a significant medical breakthrough. >> to watch the device come out and transport tissue through them and then learn that no one else has ever done this before is exciting. >> reporter: the kind of exciting document more under graduates are now getting a chance to experience. allen with al jazeera seattle. >> reporter: and that's it for us. we will have more of america tonight tomorrow. ♪ >> no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. opening doors ... opening possibilities. taking the impossible from lab ... to life. on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneak-peak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. techknow - ideas, invention, life. on al jazeera america

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour, i'm in doha with your top stories. >> i'm andrew simmons from kiev and all all the killing could there be a solution, an agreement is due to be signed in the next few minutes. >> reporter: also coming up, venezuela troopers head to the western border region to face rising antigovernment protests plus. >> the president is celebrating his