tonight on "nightline," train crash. a tractor trailer plows into an amtrak passenger train with fatal consequences and many injured. authorities say the crossing gates were working. we have the latest. un-american? how one child was slipped into the country illegally and grew up to reach the pinnacle of his profession, despite false documents and constant fear. >> i wasn't supposed to be there. >> tonight, he tells us why he's coming clean. even though it could cost him everything. and the $600 cookbook. meet the microsoft genius who spent a personal fortune to teach the world's best chefs and you how to cook perfect food. it takes him 30 hours to make a burger, but you'll get a taste

of his skills in minutes. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," june 24th, 2011. good evening, i'm bill weir. and we begin tonight with breaking news out of new york, where late tonight the state senate passed legislation permitting same-sex marriage. four republicans joined 29 democrats to pass the measure that failed a couple years ago. when governor andrew cuomo signs that bill 30 days later, new york will be the sixth state in the nation, plus washington, d.c., to recognize gay marriage. and we turn now to another breaking story out of nevada, a tragic one at that. a big-rig semi making a long haul through the nevada desert ran a crossing and t-boned an amtrak passenger train this afternoon, carrying nearly 220 people, killing at least two and injuring more than 100.

with the details, here's abc's lisa stark. >> she's out there. >> reporter: for passengers on the train, it was a jarring jolt. then smoke and fire, panic and chaos. after amtrak's california zephyr was struck by a tractor trailer. those on board, nearly 220 passengers and crew, scrambled to get out of the train, worried about an explosion, about the fire spreading. >> i was just sitting there riding the train looking out the window. next thing i know we get hit by something pape big ball of fire comes in. jump out the window. >> you jumped out the window? >> yeah. it was on fire. >> reporter: jim bickley was traveling with his wife, a few cars behind the one that was hit. he felt the impact. >> there was a lot of smoke, so we decided to stick our head out one of the doors and saw that the train was on fire. i'm getting out of here. >> reporter: the amtrak train may have been traveling nearly 80 miles an hour as it came barrelling through the intersection, but local

officials say the railroad crossing gates were working to hold back traffic. so it is unclear how or why the gravel truck smashed into the side of the fourth rail car. >> we were driving along on the train, and apparently a truck decided it was going to run the stop out in the middle of the desert. nothing around here for miles. and hit the side of the amtrak car. and it was a coach car with people in it. >> reporter: two of the rail cars caught fire, as passer-bys on the highway stopped to help. local and state police, fire and rescue rushed to the scene. so did the military. nearby naval air station fallon sent helicopters to help evacuate the injured. >> it was like a bomb exploded or a war zone. it was crazy. it was crazy. people everywhere. >> i did see a lady carried out in a blanket. people were carrying it using it like a stretcher. and yelling for medics. that kind of stuff. >> reporter: 140 on board suffered minor injuries. 40 were taken to local hospitals for treatment. those who walked away from the wreckage could hardly believe their eyes.

>> we're all standing in the desert like a bunch of jackrabbits, just all standing here. scattered about. you know, in about a 100-yard radius. everybody is just kind of unbelievable kind of a feeling. >> reporter: tonight, even more than eight hours after the wreck, officials still having trouble getting into the smoldering rail cars to check for any more survivors or victims. >> unfortunately, with the fires in the train still and the flareups, we have not gained access into the train yet to make sure that we've got everybody out. >> reporter: collisions at rail crossings are not uncommon. safety groups estimate that a train in the u.s. collides with a person or vehicle nearly every three hours. in 2008 in illinois police say a drunk driver stopped on the tracks. passers-by pulled him out just in time as a commuter train rammed into his empty car. and in 2009 another driver, clearly not paying attention, runs right into the side of a

slow-moving train in a north carolina railroad show. last year, there were more than 2,000 collisions between vehicles and trains at railroad crossings. it's not always the driver's fault. sometimes signals don't work. either way, it is frightening and dangerous. >> still in shock, so -- get on a train, you don't think it's going to crash. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm lisa stark in washington. >> our thanks to lisa stark. and just ahead, why an illegal immigrant who built a successful career in the u.s. has decided to reveal the secret that could take it all away. (announcer) chug that coffee, bolt that burrito. no matter what life throws at you, you can take the heat. until it turns into... heartburn. good thing you've got what it takes to beat that heat, too. zantac. it's strong, just one pill can knock out the burn. it's fast,

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. imagine discovering at age 16 that you are not an american, but an illegal immigrant, slipped across the border as a child. what would you do? for jose antonio vargas, the only choice was to live a life and prove his worth, and not only did he become a big-time print reporter, he won his profession's highest prize. but tonight, he is risking that career and everything else by describing his life of torment to abc's dan harris. >> i wasn't supposed to be there. i wasn't supposed to be walking with martin zuckerberg. i wasn't supposed to be interviewing romney's sons. i wasn't supposed to be pheasant hunting with huckabee. i wasn't supposed to be doing all these things. but i was. why was i doing it?

because i wanted to survive. i wanted to live. >> reporter: not only did jose antonio vargas survive, he thrived. in his reporting career, he scored some of the biggest interviews in politics and high tech. he even won a pulitzer prize. and through it all, he was hiding an enormous secret. >> there wasn't a moment that i wasn't thinking about it. >> reporter: it was a secret he hid in a shoe box in his apartment, where he kept pictures of his childhood in the philippines. at age 12 his mother sent him to live with his grandparents in mountain view, california. it wasn't until he was 16 when he tried to use his green card to get a driver's permit that he realized there was a rob. problem. >> she just looked at it, flipped it around and she said, you know, this is fake. don't come back -- don't come back here again. >> reporter: that was the first moment of what would become an elaborate life of secrets, lies and ever-present fear. >> i remember the first instinct was okay, that's, it get rid of the accent. get rid of the accent. got to get rid of this accent. because i just thought to

myself, you know, i couldn't give anybody any reason to ever doubt that i'm an american. >> reporter: he furiously studied vhs tapes of everything from "the golden girls" to goodfellas. he was able to get his early reporting gigs by using a doctored social security card his grandfather got for him. but in his early 20s he received a job offer from "washington post," and they told him to work there he needed a driver's license. so for that he used fake documents. you were committing a crime. >> yes. yes, i was. you have to do what you have to do. i wanted to work. i wanted to work. i wanted to contribute. i wanted to prove that i was worthy of being here. and i was going to do whatever it took to prove that. it wasn't right. it wasn't the right thing to do. but i had to do it. what was i supposed to do? what was i supposed to do? >> he didn't have many options. >> reporter: he even had help from his former high school principal and superintendent. >> now, there are a lot of people who would say that's a real act of kindness. there are some people who would say, however, that you were

helping this kid commit a crime. >> yep. and you know what? i'd do it all over again. >> if you worked with kids that you knew were undocumented and watched them just fade away as they began to approach adulthood out of fear that they weren't going to be -- that they'd be found out, it wasn't too hard to decide in your heart that the right thing to do is to try to help young people to meet their potential. >> reporter: it worked. vargas got the license and the job. and his reporting career took off. he even used that fraudulent license to get into the white house to cover a state dinner. >> were you nervous to go to the white house? >> oh, gosh, yes. of course i was. i keep thinking, every time, was somebody going to catch me? >> reporter: he never got caught. but finally he decided to out himself. >> i couldn't -- i couldn't hide the secret anymore. i just snapped. i just snapped, man. >> reporter: the last straw, he says, came in december, when congress failed to pass the

d.r.e.a.m. act, a bill that would allow the roughly 2 million illegal immigrants that came to this country as children to become citizens if they go to college or serve in the military. >> the critics of the dream act say that this would reward undocumented parents and that it would be an open invitation to fraud. >> but who are we punishing? my question about this is who are we punishing? we're punishing kids who through no fault of their own are then left out here in the system. right? >> are you not giving an incentive to parents in other countries to come here illegally with their children? >> what do we do with all these kids that are going to american schools, that we are investing in anyway? what are we supposed to do with them? what are we supposed to do with them? >> reporter: it's a thorny issue. and vargas's case makes it even thornier. what should the government do about him now? >> you could get sent back -- >> i could, yes. >> -- to the philippines.

>> i haven't been back home since i was 12. i'm 30 now. >> reporter: he hasn't dared to go home to see his mother during all of that time because he wouldn't be able to return. his grandmother, who is here legally, is clearly worried now. >> what do you think of what jose's doing now with announcing that he's undocumented? >> i'm so sad. >> you're sad? >> yeah. >> you know, we don't -- >> you don't want to talk about it? >> yeah, i don't want to talk about it. >> she's worried about it? >> yeah. >> reporter: federal immigration officials are aware of vargas's revelations and their early reaction suggests they may not deport him. but this former immigration official says that could send a troubling message. >> and the concern would be is that by deferring action on someone who's high-profile like this you'd be sending a message that it's okay. >> reporter: but vargas says his case sends another message, one that could change americans'

preconceived notions about illegal immigrants by shining a spotlight on the roughly 66,000 of them who have a bachelor's degree or higher. >> we are not who you think we are. we don't just mow your lawns and babysit your kids and, you know, serve you tacos. >> reporter: vargas knows he's taking a risk to send that message. he is scared, he says, but determined. >> you can call me whatever you want to call me, but in my heart, in my heart i'm an american. >> reporter: for "nightline" this is dan harris in mountain view, california.

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some chefs are scientists in the kitchen. but the man you're about to meet is more of a mad scientist, madness defined by someone who spends his own millions studying popcorn. here's abc's neal karlinsky. >> reporter: food can be glorious. it can be simple, complex. it can even be art. if you've never imagined a simple kernel of popcorn as a thing of beauty, just watch. and as the kernel blossoms like a flower in this incredible slow motion video, consider that what you're really witnessing are the experiments of a man who's devoting a small fortune to an examination of food unlike anything the world has seen. >> a lot of people wonder how their microwave oven works. so we cut one in half. >> reporter: his name is nathan mervel, and cutting things in half to understand, for example, what heat really does to a pot full of broccoli is just the beginning.

the recipe in this ideal lab for food includes a dash of exquisite art mixed with a whole lot of science, all wrapped together with a passion for cooking. the result? "modernist cuisine," a $625, 2,400-page waterproof bible of food. a collection already sold out of its first printing despite its enormous size and price tag. >> we had a goal to show people a vision of food that they just hadn't seen before. >> reporter: take the simple bonbon for example. not so simple here. bananas are spun in a centrifuge, turning them to juice, which is frozen in liquid nitrogen, before being drowned in hot syrup. trust me, there's nothing complicated about the results. oh, wow. >> this is about 20 to 25 pounds of just this. >> reporter: the lead chef whipped up something he calls pea butter, by spinning peas in

a jar at speeds that pull more gs than an astronaut on liftoff. >> are they making pea butter anywhere else on the planet right now? >> not yet. but we hope people will be inspired. >> reporter: the team of world class chefs claim their perfect burger recipe takes 30 hours to cook. >> when you throw in the egg white, it totally improves the texture. so this is just a thick paste of mushroom and egg. and we're going to spread it here on the non-stick pan. and then in one nice smooth motion -- >> wow. >> reporter: nathan made me an omelet cooked in, of all things, a steamer. >> we had a lot of experiments to find the right mix of eggs to use. >> reporter: that included scrambled eggs shot out of a can like whipped cream. >> i have to say there's nothing you're doing right now that looks like an omelet. >> well, it's ann a non-traditional omelet. there you go. >> reporter: that's like no omelet i've ever had. every bit of food has been deconstructed to get to the essence of its taste and rebuilt using the core principles of science.

from the juiciest chicken encased in the juiciest, crispiest exterior our crew had ever tasted, thanks to a combination of cooking then super heated roasting -- >> whoa. don't go skimpy on the gravy here. >> i won't. >> once again, this is too good for me to eat. that's incredible. >> so, we just use an ordinary box grater here. >> reporter: to a unique and delicious mac and cheese. >> you turned regular cheese into super special cheese. >> yep. >> reporter: that anyone can make. >> all right. that is the ultimate mac and cheese. >> there you go. >> reporter: who else but a billionaire like nath-ton make it happen? after all, the former chief technology officer who helped build microsoft also once worked as a physicist alongside steven hawking. >> these containers which are relatively light, can hold enough vaccine for 5,000 people. >> reporter: new containers for third world vaccines and an invisible fence to wipe out malaria-carrying mosquitos are

just a fraction of what nathan's scientists are working on right alongside the kitchen. the company, virtual ventures, is a patent factory, inside a 27,500-square-foot warehouse near seattle. >> the challenges you have in designing a nuclear reactor and curing malaria are very different from the challenge of make mac and cheese. but in both cases understanding the laws of nature, understanding how nature actually works is really important. cooking relies on science, but cooking is itself an art. >> reporter: the books and their exquisite illustrations were such a vast undertaking it didn't just take years of work and millions of dollars. he had to create his own publishing company. >> i know you're a guy who's done fairly well. how much did all this run you? >> i don't like to think about that. >> reporter: next up, he says maybe a second series of books, this time about baking. or, he might just pursue another passion. dinosaur research. i'm neal karlinsky for