captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, what the state of the union reveals about the divergent political priorities of both parties. then, the end of aids: the president commits to stopping the transmission of h.i.v. in the u.s. by 2030. what will it take to end the epidemic? plus, wild designs-- how engineers are creating new technologies inspired by the natural world. >> what we are doing is trying to recapitulate what exists in nature. so now the idea is that well can we start to learn some of those design rules, how can we build non-natural systems with these c livils. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: president trump's state of the union address hasnd comeone, but there's no indication that it shifted the political or policy landscape in nsshington. instead, reactplit along familiar party lines today. the sharp differences in reaction to the state of the union address last night were very much still on display the morning after. on the senate floor, majority leader mitch mcconnell praised the speech, and president trump's calls for unity. >> the president shared and hopeful vision bright future for our country. in p future is bright because of the big steps we have taken togethei or move the forward. >> woodruff: but my leader chuck schumer had a distinctly different view. of so the president's stat the union address did something rare last night, for a sn te of the undress. it revealed just how much repair

the state of our union requires. >> woodruff: house speaker nancy pelosi accused mr. trump of making threats, when he warned that demrats' investigations of him would destroy cooperation and hurt the economy. and new york democratic congressmahakeem jeffries insisted the new house majority will use its power responsibly. >> we're not going to over reach. we're not going to over investigate. we're not going to over politicize ouronstitutional responsibilities. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the president's demand for funds for a southe border wall remains a flashpoint, and could forcent another governhutdown in nine days. the president now plans to hold his first campaign rally of the year, next week, near the border, in el paso, texas. we'll look at both the president's agenda, and the democrats' plans, after the news summary. the day's other news, the house intelligence committee will re-open its investigation

of russian interference in the 2016 election. it will also delve into president trump's financial interests overseas. the new democratic chair of the unmmittee, adam schiff, and it today. the president, in turn, brandedi a "political hack." last year, under republican control, the committee said it found no evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia. there e signs of possible progress among lawmakers trying to work out a border security de and avert another government shutdown. wey hope to get an agreement, that president trul sign, by february 15th. republican senator richard shelby of alabama is leading the bipartisan group that heard today from border patr officials. >> it's going to take a number of years to secure our borders. need technology, need barriers and they need people. i hoping from this to create the dynamic to bring us together to fund the government to secure

the border.>> oodruff: president trump has called the process a "waste of time."r but house speancy pelosi said today she thinks the negotiators could come up with something this week. the political crisis engulfing virginia's top democratic leaders, intensified. governor ralph northam was already under pressure to resign, over a racist yearbook photo, and his admission that he once appeared in blackface. today, state attorney general mark herring admitted he made up in black face as a collegest ent in 1980. and lieutenant governor justin fairfax again denied that he sexually assaulted a 15 years ago. the accuser detailed her claim a statement. on afghanistan, lebaers of the tainsurgent group said today the u.s. has promised to wiedraw half its troops by end of april. that statementame at a meeting of taliban representatives and prominent afghan figures in

moscow. the pentagon had no immediate response. meanwhile, in kabul, a former afghan government legal adviser warned against any sudden u.s. pull-out. >> ( translated ): the war inan aftan must end, but this opportunity must not turn into a threat that the withdraw of american forces from afghanistan paves the way for another war. therefore, the best outcome would be if the final decision by the u.s. government comes out after negotiations show a definite result. >> woodruff: in the state of the union address, president trump suggested that u.s. anti-terror efforts should continue in afghanistan, even aftroop reduction. but the taliban today rejectedu. any long-ter military presence. back in this country, there were sharply different reactions in alabama, after the state attorney general cleared a police officer in the killing of a black man. the officer mistook e.j. bradford for a gunman after a shooting at a shopping mall, on

thanksgiving the incident sparked days of protests, and today, the mayorma of hoover, alasaid officials are relieved to finally have the report. >> we will gather together as a city, the internalouperations focity, and we'll review what took place. we want to make sure that we're doing things right. we want to be a better city tomorrow. it's been a long process. it's csed a lot of anxiety throughout the city so we're relieved to have this report in front of us now. >> woodruff: relatives of bradford say the shooting amounted to murder, and they protested again today outside the state attorney general's office. president trump formally nominated david malpass today as the u.s. choice to lead the world bank.as mahas criticized the bank for focusing too much on its own

growth and not enough on fiting poverty. and on wall street, the dow jones industrial average lost 2o ts to close at 25,390. the nasdaq fell 26 points, and the s&p 500 slipped six. c still e on the newshour: what's next for congressional lawmakers now that the president has laid out his agenda. the possibility, and challenge,i or ending h.i.n the u.s. by 2030, plus, much >> woodruff: as is the case most years, lasnight's state of the union address was as an occasion for both parties to lay out thtr priorities, and stake ground for political battles to come. the president spoke at length about immigration and jobs, topics he raises frequently, while also highlighting the fight against "isis", prescription drug ices, and

other issues. our own yamiche alcindor is here now with a deeper dive into the president's statements last night. hello, yamiche. so let's talk abotut some of wha the president laid out last ect thehow this could aff next few years. first, talk about what he had t out immigration. >> so the president spoke a lot about working across the aisle last night, but his speech wa laced with all sorts of misinformation, and it's the kind of misinformation that could complicate the next two years of hi is presidency, wh comes to immigration-- and we'll put it up, the president sa san diego and el paso, texas,af are much sr because of new walls that were put up. that's simply not true, judy. there's been no new wall builtl and hat's been happening is existing repairs on existing fencing. and it's important to note the president saidthis and has said over and over that the wall is being built that e contributions had started and that's not true. i want to read to you a statement the el paso texas put out today.

's a democrat buthe is frustrated with the president's characterizations. he said the characterizations are falsehoods, "the facts are clear, president trump it bees to give a false narrative about a grt city that truly utpresents what this great nation is all ab it's also important to note that the president talks about the country being inveiledded by immigrants. border apprehensions are at an all-time low. why it mattehere is a bipartisan committee working on immigration but the pre continues to use information that democrats say is completely false, and it's hard it to see how we're going to get to some sort of resolution before the shutdown deadline. >> woodruff: he also talked about health care, talked about how good it would be if the country would lower prescriptio. drug cos explain what he had to say there, and how that looks for the next year or s >> so, health care costs and the cost of prescription drugs are something that's a really

important hopeful area for bipartisanship in this country. the president said, "americans pay vastly more than people in otr countries for the exact same drugs, often made in the exact same place."d that's true, and it's also true that democrats and republicans alike are very interested in tryg to decrease the cost of health care in this country. it's important to note that this mattas because, according t study that was put out by the government last fall, there are some companies that charge 1.8 times high rate for the u.s. than in other countries. so as we look forward, the president and democrats definitely don't agree on the affordable care act, but they could possibly comtogether for some sort of policy change that could help people spendy ess mon prescription drugs. >> woodruff: so that's a couple examples on domestic policy. the president did spend a good bit of time toward the end of the speech on reign affairs, and including talking about the fight against isis. explain what he had to say there, what he laid out. >> how to tackle isis is something that is one of the rare andrp shat areas of disagreements between this

president and republicans. the president said-- and we'll put it up again, "isis once controlled 20,000 squar exphielz they now have been removed from virtually all of its territory in iraq and syria." that's true but it needs more context. the president is saying isis has been basically defeated at some points. what we know is isis used to controup to 34,000 square miles in 2013 fraen. now it's d to 20 square miles. the president said todaysis could be rooted out of 100% of the territories they onceai d. but one of the top military officials for the middle east and u.s. forces said isis could reclaim that territory if the president pulls out. and the president, of course, in december said he was pulling troops outsy oria. when we look forward, this could mean republicans have to now makesi de. are they going to push back more against the president and say, "we're goi to push back on this and maybe other things," or are republicans going to do what they did ithe last two years which is largely align with the president. >> woodruff: very qu, the economy.

the president also touted the progress that's been made under his leadership. how does that square with facts on the ground? >> well, the president loves talking about the economy because it is going well, and 's also a 2020 campaign strategy for him, something that he wants to talk about on the campaign trail. he said we've created 5.3 million new jobs and 600,000 new manufacturing jobs. that's simply not true. he's actually created 4.9 million jobs and 436,000 manufacturing joz. some of the numbers he's using come from president oba administration. that's important because as we look forward the president and democrats need to get together and agree on a set of facts, ani if he's ng information from president obama's administration and trying to use that against edemocrats, you can just hat that would be a hard road to go down, and the democrats will esay, "you're not crdible on this issue or other issues." so we'll just havtoe see how this speech and the msquotes impacts his relationship with democrats. >> woodruff: a recipe for what we'll find out. another yamiche, thank you very much.

>> woodruff: last night was the first time president trump addressed a democratically controlled u.s. house of representatives. the reality of this new era of divided government was visible in how speaker nancy pelosi,g alth a diverse group of freshman members reacted.rs diy was also on display in the party's official response-- stacey abrams became the fir african american woman to deliver the rebuttal to the president. our lisa desjardins is hthe to help walugh what this all says about the democratic agenda. so, broadly spesaking, a, you've been looking at what the democrats want to focus on. explain what that is. >> right. nancy pelosi, the house speaker, is kind of e tting thground running on a few fronts. let's look at their overall agenda, what house democrats say they want to do. number one: election and government reform, judy. that's at the torch eir list. they have a sweeping bill that they have recently introduced. number two: we saw a horg this today, bac it's the beginning of what may

do further on the idea of more n control. this is what they're doing now. later coming months democrats say they will also tackle infrastructure, health care-- that includes dru price miche mentioned, which of course is where they have oveprrlap with thident. one other item-- climate change. they are in the middle of establishing a new climate ange committee but it doesn't have jurisdiction.ic this is a t area for democrats because some want to go farther than others in their caucus. it's not clear what kind of a bill, ifth any, ey will actually vote on. >> woodruff: a real contrast with what the house was doi under republican control. >> that's right. >> woodruff: let's drillown on the rst of those, hr1, the government reform bill. i whatit. >> hr-1, the first bill? >> it is a sweeping bill. it includes many items. let's start right away with they want to roll back "citizens united," make it tougher for these pack pacs and special interest groups have dark money in cam and allow public financing of campaigns. it would actually help out small

donations. if you got a small donation, the government would add six times that donation to your campaign. next, automatic votergi ration. this is part of a voting rights package in this bill. anualso it wold include new rules attempting to end jerry manneddering, which of course goes back to the very beginning our democracy. this hearing today, there was a hearing, as you see, on this, d it was ry heated, judy. democrats said voting rights are being suppressed and this bill addresses that.cr des pushed back-- i'm sorry, republicans pushed back and said they say grab for power by democrats. one other item that's in this bill that i think will be of interest, this bill would w insistld demand-- the president and vice president 1sclose their tax returns for the pa years. >> woodruff: an issue-- it's been an issue for p.esident tr so assuming the democrats can get all this dun d.n.a. in the house and they do have the mart maduro jort, what about the senate? >> this will be a quick answer. almost all of tse items have nearly no future in the senate with the possible exceptiin of

astructure and bills on drug prices. we'll have to see what those bills contain, though. the devil's in the details. >> woodruff: finally, lisa, as we mentioned in the news summary, the speaker, nancy pelosi, said it looks like there may bess proglooking at border security. what are you hearing? >> i was outside their meetings today, and t actually a bipartisan story here. those appropriators got in theom they were talking to border patrol and customs officials. and what's significant, judy, is they went mile by mile and went througdifferent types of fences and borders, where they might go, and the whole point of this, democrats and republicans told me, very significantly, is so that they would operate on the same groupacof fts. what is it that border patrol says it'st needs and where. they've come down to the idea of somewhere between 0 and 300 miles of borbaderriers-- could be different types of barriers. and what we see now here is an actual substantive conversation happening behind closed doors. that's why there hope for a

deal. however, it is, again, the devil being in the details. i don't think we'll see a deal this week by friday. perhaps over the weekend or next week. we're going toatch carefully. >> woodruff: but by the deadline. not sure. >> there is hope. it's not clear. there could have to be anoth short-term funding bill or woe could have a shutdown. >> woodruff: but they ar making progress. the president is talks over 200 miles. >> it's somewhere in the 0 to 250, 270. >> woodruff: the devil's in the details as always. lisa desjardins, thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: the second nuclear summit between the u.s. and north korea is scheduled for the end of the month. and how looking toature inspires better technology. but first, in his state of the union last night, president

trump made a bold promise: his administration will try to end the spread of h.i.v./aids in america. william brangham, who's covered this epidemic extensively for the newshour, reports on what it might take to make that promise a reality. >> brangham: it was president trump's first major pledge to address h.i.v./aids in america. >> my budget will ask democrats and republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the h.i.v. epidemic in the united states within 10 years. >> brangham: president tru dn't specify how much money he'd put forward, but nistra officiad would be funding, not dollars reallocated from other programs. today, more than 1.1 millionvi americans are with h.i.v., and there are some 40,000 new infections every year. e administration says it aiming to reduce those new infections by 75% over five

years and by at least 90% by 2030. it's focusing on 48 specific osunties, where over half new infections occur. it also pointed toeven states in the southern u.s. with a substantial h.i.v. burden. the southern u.s is also home to half of all undiagnosed infections. public health task forces will enlp local agencies in these areas boost prevtion and treatment programs. anretroviral treatment not only stops an infected person from progresng to aids, but it also prevents them from passing the virus to others. but today, only about half of h.v. positive people in th u.s. are getting this crucial treatment. gay and bisexu men and people of color are at particular risk. admistration officials said they'll also continue to expand the use of the h.i.v. prevention drug called "prep"-- it's known commercially as truvada. it's effective, but expensive-- officials today said additional

funding for prep is crucial. >> prep works. if you adhere to prep, i think we all know now with a number of very good studies that the efficacy of preventing acquisition of infection in a high-risk individual is greater than 97%. >> brangham: other proven o evention tools, like needle exchanges, can alp prevent the virus' spread. but ending this epidemic still faces many challenge in our series st h.i.v./aids ear, we visited miami, florida, one of the epicenters of h.i.vin america. there, dr. hansel tookes who ran the only ndle exchange program in the entire state described why endi still so difficult. >> i think, unfortunately, what's happened in florida and here in miami is: in the absence of needle exchange, in the absence of comprehensive sexual education, in the absence ofcc widespreads to prep, this is what happens. you have a city that has no control over the current h.i.v. epidemic. >> together, we will defeat aids

in america and beyond. >> brangham: and while the president made the pledge last night, his administration's policies have, in other ways, undercuthat very effort. the trump administration has worked to gut substantial portions of the affordable care act and the expansion of medicaid. about half of those receiving care for h.i.v. in america do so through medicaid or medica. the administration has also cut funding to global h.i.v./aids programs like "pepfar," theen mously successful program begun by former president george w bush.tr the p administration will give a dollar value indication of how serious it really is about ending h.i.v. in the u.s. when it releases its 2020 budget. to take a deeper look at the president's pledge from last'm night,oined by two men who've studied h.i.v. extensively. jon cohen has covered this epidemicor 30 years for "science" magazine. many of you will also recognize him as our rorting partner on our two multi-part series on

h.i.v./aids. and dr. carlos del rio is an h.i.v./aids doctor at emory university iatlanta, a city that's one of the epicenters of america's epidemic. he runs the global health department at emory's medical school and co-directs emory's center for aids research. t ast. >> the presidid we are going to end the hiv epidemic in 10 years. how realistic is that? >> it's an internal goal. i think it's entirely realistic in some places, and the question is can you do it nationwide? we already see great progress in cities like san francisco and states like new york that have really tried to bear down and do it with detailed plans, and with a lot of self-criticism. so it's really going to come down, in my mind, to how much

self-criticism there is, how detailed the plans are, and how quickly people evaluate their fault lines and where things aren't working, adjust and make aro ster response. >> brangham: dr. del rio, the same question to you. how realistic, from your persctive, is the president's proposal? >> you know, it's a long shot, but, again, in the 1960, whe kennedy said "we're going to go to the moon," it was a long shot. i think what we saw and what is necessary is much needed in our u.s. epidemic response is leadership, and whether the president provided tha initiative, and now we're going to get all the agencies to working to the achie that goal. i think it's doable. i think it's not going to be easy but, again, big things are never easy. >> brangham: jon cohen, as i mentioned rlier, the administration has laid out that they're going to target these very specific counties across the u.s. they're also going to target seven states that have rural

epidemics. oat do we know about thse places in particular, and why and who is particularly at risk in those places? >> we know quite a bit. the people who are most at risk have fallen out of the health care system. they're hard to reach. thlot of them have mental health issues. have housing problems. dr. del rio and i earlier today mere talking about a lot of the changing their phone numbers frequently. it's hard to connect with them, keep them in carar it'sto get them tested in the first place. it's a big ask. but ere's somethinglse on the horizon that hasn't been discussed much, and that's the possibility that there will be an improvement in the hiv/aids drugs so they're long lasting. you won't need to take them every day, which is a major hurd netreatment and prevention. if that happens, that will change the equation, too. >> brangham: dr. del rio, pick up on that. as jon is talking about, effective treatment, it works. it ss es peoplves.

it stops them from transmitting the lives to others. but only half the people who need that triement trooement are getting it. isn't that really priority number one? >> absolutely. i think the biggest challenge that we have as a nation andon re to the epidemic is keeping people in care. we are pretty good testing. we get them linked to care and people fall out of carane. you're not in care, you're not getting therapy, and you don't haveurirus suppressed and you're transmitting to others. i think the big challenge is h do we get people engaged in care? and jon and i were talking abo peer navigators, case managers, all different strategies we need to make sure people don't fall out of care, that people sta engaged in care. and then we can get them antivirals. >> brangham: jon, this is something you have reported on, you and i have reported on quiae t. can you talk about the role poverty and racism and homophobia and trans-phobia play in-- how that complicates our

response to the epidemic. >>ohat's-- that's the rot of the problem. there is so much stigma and discrimination. and these-- there are so many communities of people who are outside of systems, outside of health care,and they're difficult people to help. i mean, you and i worked with san francisco general hospital in 2016, in our series lere. oked at a really concentrated program with about 900 people, who were the most difficult people in the wod to help, and it took an intensive effort from a really skilled group of clinicians and outreach workers to achieve what was phenomenal. you know, nearly 90% long-term suppression of that opulation of people who are hiv infected. but remember, look at what it took. >> brangham: and, dr. del rio, the other bigeg of this stool seems to be prevention. the administration officials today said that prevention of going to beab enormous part ofr thffort. we know that part of that is an education, but also part of that

is in the deployment of prep. why has that been so slow to take off across the country? >> you know, it's been a hugert missed opity since prep was approved by the f.d.a. to now, really, there's been just simply a huge lag time of thplementation. prep is effective. prep is useful. and the people that are using ia the mo the ones that need it the least. so when you talk aboutco entrated epidemics, like the one we have in the u.s., it is critical that you improve the number of people tt suppressed, buof but you also scale up prep in a significant way. >> brangham: after the president's announcement, jon, i saw-- there was, obviously, optimism on the apar part of pee focusing on this. but it pointed to the fact that the administration has done other things that chip away at the effort. pushing to not expand medicaid. doesn't that seem like they've fit one hand ghting the other in this effort? >> as someone said to me today

who didn't want to be quoted, "it's washington." that's how politics works. makes single bedfellows. it doesn't make any sense that the administration would be work agaiself in this effort with discrimination against the transgender population or gay men or the issues that have come up with people of color. these things have to be addressed holistically, and you can't win until you do it that way. >> brangham: all right, dr. carlos del rio, jon cohen, thank you both very much. id woodruff: another major initiative of prt trump is improving u.s./north korean relations in order to em to give up their nuclear weapons. thpresident met north kore leader kim jung un this past

summer. last night, mr. trump announced that he'd meet mr. kim for a second time at the e of this mont what's on the agenda for this next meeting and what's the state of play of diploma between the two countries? we turn to foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin. so, hello, nick. >> hi, judy. be woodruff: the president said it's going tin vietnam the end of february. why vietnam? >> first of all, logistics. north korecan get there and has an embassy in vietnam. number two, north korea and the united states hav relatively good relations with vietnam. number three, for the u.s., vietnam is a model. it's a communist country that has opened up economically, diplomatically, and has become much richer for, that so the u.s. wants north korea to consider that model. and fourth, for the u.s. it's a good talking point. .he u.s. likes to tell the north koreans that the. has no permanent enemies. what better place to do that than vietnam? it's not a perfect example. vietnam beat the united states in a war, and, of course, north

korea took over a u.s.-backed south korea, so it's not eca pe model. >> woodruff: so is there-- what's the u.s. administration approach going into these talksa >> we'ved to a lot of analysts, and most of them say there is actually a fundamentally different approach than there has been in the past? and that is that the u.s. sees north korea as having a place in e future of northeast asia. and that's just not something the u.s. had made so explicit in the past. so let's listen to steve beagenp the .s. negotiator in north korea. he was talk last week, and he used a different tone than the u.s. has really talked about north korea in the pash anstarted by mentioning the desire toned the korean war, which ended in armistice, not a peace treaty. >> president trump is ready to end this war. it is over. it is don we are not going to invade north korea. we are not seeking to topple the north korean regime. we need to vance our

diploamary, alongside our plans r denuclearization, in a manner that sends that message clearly to north korea as well. are ready fora different future. >> "ready for a different the trump administration sees this as a moment of opportunity. president trump in the past has said the threat from north kore er. he's tempered that, but the trump administration has been imistic. critics really fear-- many of them from the right, by the way it's president shouldn'go into this summit so quickly and should instead let people like beigen negotiate the details and wait. >> woodruff: let me ek you about details. up until now, both sides have been saying to the other one, "you go first." how did the u.s. get past that in just their thinking on the sequencef this taking place? >> right, the sequence has been vital and the two sides have been far apart and now they're not. the u.s. really has shifted in this. in the past t u.s. has said denuclearization fit-- sorry, denuclearization first, and then we can talk about sanctions relief. e north koreans said, wait a

minute, we need to do this step by step. we take a step, you take a step, and then eventually we'll get th end together. and biegen last week reall endorsed the north korean model and said there could be progresr on denucation, the ending of the war, and improving relations, step >>by step. f we're doing the right thing with each other in relaons it makes it easier to do right things on nuclear weapons. and it makes it much more conceivable there will be a peace regime on the korean peninsula. >> the suz hoping tate a road map for those steps. >> woodruff: one of the other sticking points has been the u.s. asking for a list of the program, nuclear and missile programs, that the north koreans have. tell us where that stands. >> yet another sign that the u.s. is moing toward the north korean position. in the past the u.s. said you have to give us your complete list of nuclear and missile programs.

the north koreans said thanks, but no thanks. that's like giving you targeting list. instead, biegun said last week there needs to be a complete list but it needs to be at the end of the process. >> before the process of denuclearization can be final, we must also have a complete understanding of the full extent of the north korean weapons of mass destruction missile programs. we will get that at some point through a comprehensive declaration. >> "we'll get there at some" poin that is a real shift. critics say this is like a watering down of the.s. demands. >> woodruff: what you've been describing is how the u.s. has given in, has made concessions. what are they expecting from the north koreans? >> the u.s. officials are actually very specifiut what they want. number one, they're looking for a roadmap, a roadmap for future negoations and declarations. number two, they're looking for what they're calling a "shared understanding of the desired outcomes." basically, what does ace look like? what does denuclearization look like? and number three they're lookin

at they're calling concrete deliverables. now, what does that mean? that could be inspectors that could verify the clreo of missile sites. the end of nuclear fuel production from the north korean side. it could also be progress tond the korean war. what does north korea want? at the top o lf thet is sanctions relief. what biegun is doing now, he's, in north kor's going to set framework for these negotiations. critics fear that he's not going e enough progress and that president trump will go into this summumit withou progress and give too much away, basically, perhaps even lower the number of twroops in south korea. but i have to say, judy, the pro-engagement analysts we talked, to as one f them put it, "this is the greatest opportunity they have seen forking from their lives." >> woodruff: it's fascinating that it finally appears about to take place. >> absolutely. and this summit is set. >> woodruff: all right, thank you very much. nick schifrin. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: now, going beyond a reading, writi arithmetic to teach leadership and empathy to high school students. fred de sam lazaro traveled to rural thailand for a return visit with the man leading an effort to modernize education in that count. >> reporter: it doesn't look like the average thai public school. there are games and paper making, and the teachers on this day were visiting students from a unique nearby high school it's part of a new approach the government is seeking to expand across thailand. it's begun with an initial 180 schools, and is based on the non profit 7-12th grade mechai bamboo school, named after itsec founder,i viravaidya. >> we have so many schools now wanting to joi the schools want it, the

communities want it, which is really very, very positive. >> reporter: the bamboo school was started nine years ago in rural eastern thailand as a way to empower you villagers to bring economic development to their communitie a typical day, students might be performing for patients at a nearby hospital, after handing out meals they had prepared at the school kitchen using produce grown in the school garden. students do learn in traditional isclassrooms, but the emphs hands-on. soonhese math students are outside taking measurements anda ng real world calculations about how much rice can be grown in each pot. still others move the student- designed solar powered water

of the shade to a new spot in the garden. >> we're always trying to get the kids to think: how canhey improve whatever they do. they have many good ideas. >> reporter: mechai viravaidya is an economist who became famous in the 1970s for colorful family planning campaigns. he used the media, buddhist monks and humor, like condom- blowing contests, to help a conservative culture overcome embarrassment about sexuality as he recalled when i first talked toim in the mid '90s >> we said, one must not be embarrassed by a condom, it's justrom a rubber tree. if you're embarrassed by the be moreyou mus embarrassed by a tennis ball. there's more rubber in it! >> reporter: thailans fertility rate went from six children per woman to less than two today. it is now considered a middle income country but rural communities have not benefited as much from improved standards. mechai says modernizing theem education sys key to closing that gap

>> the school is more than just a school that all of us used to know. a school is a lifelong learning center and a hub for social and econic advancement in the communities. >> reporter: it means that in addition to academics, each student musttart a small business, whether it's selling food or handmade paper or large water storage pots. instead of paying tuition, students and parents perform 400 hours of community service apr year, iding daycare for mothers from the community or teaching workshops about gardening to senior citizens. and through internships and partnerships with the business community, students learn about career options in agriculture, commerce, education and much more. >> these are the things we have to teach them. life skills and occupational skills. >> reporter: the emphasis at the bamboo school is on leadership and empathy. students often lead group discussions, like this sex education class which included mechai's hallmk condom blowing

contest. and students conduct interviews to determine whichmitudents get ed and which teachers get hired. the rules at mechai's grade 7 through 12 boarding school are firm: students do chores every morning. there is only one hour of cellphone use a week. when rules are violated, a student panel helps determine the consequences. a few years ago, four seniors were caught smoking. >> so the student council said that they should be expelled and ey were expelled. >> reporter: that's pretty radical. >> the issue of discipline is very important, for them to realize that it's not difficult to be honest.ic it is not dit to obey the rules and laws. start them young and when they get older, iwill be second nature to them. ol reporter: the bamboo sc goes out of its way to recruit students who have been marginalized by society, such as chanida nithikajorn. she's from a minority group in an isolated region of thailand and criewhen asked how her life has changed after coming

here. >> ( translated ): i never thought i'd have a chance to pursue education. i've always wanted to be a doctor but i thought i wouldn'to be abl achieve that. but now things have changed a lot. >> reporter: 9th grader nut mon is stateless because her grandparents came to thailand illegally from myanmar. >> ( translated ): being stateless is the worst possible thing that can happen to a person. you are deprived of ma liberties. i was not allowed to travel outside my village. porter: thanks to intervention by mechai, nut was allowed to attend the bschool and eventually hopes to go on to college. 85% of the school's graduates do so. >> this is a way of proving that you can stay in rural settings and get a good income and be scientific, rather than having

to migrate like other people. >> reporte it's an idea that m graduate jindarat maneets taken to heart. she's since gone on to university majoring inmausiness gement and as her final project, works as an intern back at her alma mater. >> ( translated ): there's been a huge migration and most people have disappeared from the village. i'm trying to convince youth to come and see the importance of village life and maintain some of it.te >> rep jindarat says technology has made it possible for rural villagers to have communications and businessesto that are tiehe larger world. but acknowledges that at times technology has had a corrosive effect. ( translated ): when i was young, i would go out in the fields and help my parents. it was part of the village culture. now young children spendllheir days on ones watching youtube most of the time. i want tplay a role in developing ideas for businesses in the village while preserving village identity. >> reporter: at age 77, mechai shows no signs of slowing down. while most of his time is spent

trying to raise money, he reill larly meets with the young scholars. at this student council meeting, he listened to a proposal to start actively recruiting students who are orphans. he says it's all part of the plan for students to continue the work that he has begun here. >> they come back, olds to teach younger kids. we say it's like a relay race. whatever we receive, we must pass onto others. >> reporter: it's th legacy that mechai hopes will continue to grow as the new public school model expands across thailand. for the pbs newshour, i'm fred de s lazaro in buri ram, thailand. >> woodrf: fred's reporting is a partnership with theri under-told stoes project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. ly

>> woodruff: finhow scienists are turning to the elegance of nature for inspiratioabout machines and bots that can help us. as technology advances, researchers are looking how to icprove devices and innovations to transform medine and much more. miles o'brien reports for our breakthroughs series on the leading edge of sciegye and techno. >> reporter: in the never-ending hunt for new designs that mp, dimp, or run faster and better, scientists are f inspiration when they look out the windows of their labs, or in the mirror. >> almost everything that we arn trying to do ineering is actually really in some ways trying to replicate the beauty, and the intricacy and the complexity of what we find in nature. >> reporter: bioengineer rashid bashir and his team at the university of illinois are developing so called bio-bots that move using al muscles

activated by flashes of light. bashir sees lot of potential applications, like toxic clean- up or tiny clot-busting bots to treat people with heart sease. >> what we are doing is trying to recapitulate what exists in nature. so now the idea is that well can we start to learn some of those design rules, how can we build non-natural systems with these living cells. >> reporter: bashir's work is part of an accelerattrend. welcome to odd, and yet familiar, world of bioinspired design, or biomimicry. >> biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature.ep >>ter: janine benyus is a biologist and writer who popurized the term, writing book on the subject in 1997. >> take methane and turn it into plastics. >> reporter: she remains in the vanguard of the field. >> you have novelty and sustainability, i think that's why a lot of inventors are now turning towards biomimicry. >> reporter: physicist seth

fraden is among themhe he directsio-inspired soft materials center at brandeis university. here they want to understand the fundamentals of how living things move. >> we're talking about blurring the undaries between the animate and the inanimate. >> reporte he and his collaborator zvonimir dogic are working on artificial cilia, tiny hairlikprojections on the surface of cells. they work together in sync to move fluids. while these cilia are microspic, they could lead to the development of moreti sophted materials to carry out more complicated tasks, like that need no pumps. >> your heart will pump fluids. your intestines will pump fluids. now if we want to pump oil through a pipe, we have to have a pump at one end and create pressure to drive it. h why can't e tubing that consumes energy, that flows energy through it then contract.

>> reporter: is it alive? >> no, it's not alive. it's just a simple machine but instead of having an external pump that's mposed of many dead components, it's composed-- fluid is composed of milons and millions of individual components, and under certain conditions, all of these machines go in a certain direction and push fluid with it. >> reporter: kostya kornev and his team at clemson university are also looking at nature's means of moving fluids. they are focused on the mouth, or proboscis, of butterflies to inspire a breakthrough in materials science. kornev and his team want to make synthetic fibers with similar properties. eventually, they want to build a micro siphon that would suck up or dispense tiny drops of flui such a device would have wide- ranging applications, like new

medical tools. >> so you can think about, eveno ng the single cell, taking a little droplet from say theif nucleus, oou can go to the brain and do the surgery on the brain. >> reporter: roboticist sarah bergbreiter is thinking along thsame lines. she and her team build tiny robotsnspired by insects, which can be impressive jumpers. fleas can le 200 times their body length. >> ssswhat we can do is compre this and store energy in the rubber bands and release them for a jump. >> reporter: bergbreiter sees day when micro-bots could carry cameras and sensors into small places for surveillance, perform uccrosurgery, crawl into cracks to monitor the sral safety of buildings and bridges, even deploy on search and rescue

missions. >> my picture is always... you have a bucket full of these small robots. you dump them into rubble after a disaster and they have just engh energy to find somebo and say, "hey, dig over here." b >> reporter: slds her robots using 3-d printers. this burgeoning manufacturing technique enables engineers and inventors to think out of the design box that has existed since the advent of the industrial revolution.ne boston, at 3-d printing startup desktop metal, they are using artificial intelligence to do the designing. engineer andy roberts tells the machine what stresses a part will encounter, and the software does the res >> this is a nature inspired col that is intended to make it easy to create thezy shaped parts here. in this one,e're growing three different stems towards a common target. whilthey look like three organisms right now, they will join together and fuse into a single one

this ability to simulate these random and cumulative forces that you see in nature a the time tends to give these parts o resilient overall behavior >> reporter: check out this a.i. designed skateboard. >> i've triggered the growth of this design from a single seed cell on this base plate right down here. >> reporter: so when the machins old to design a machine, it makes something that looksike it belongs in nature. oh, the irony!at >> ulty, the truly biomimetic idea is that you're functionally indistinguishable from the wild land next door. >> reporter: but it does stand to reason. after l, nature has been perfecting designs for 3.8 billion years.ho for the pbs neur, i'm miles o'brien in boston.

>> that is about one pound of food for person. it is a staggering figure, considering nearly 13% of this country's population experiences fo insecurity as christina quinn from wgbhs, repooston-area college students are trying to help close the food insecurity gap. >> reporter: lunch just ended inside harvard's annenberg hall. and there's still a lot ofood left but these students are wimarking sure none of it ll go to waste. each week, they help package 1200 pounds of leftovers into microwaveable frozen meals. environmental studies major motoy kuno-lewis got involved because decaying food creates methane gas, one of the leading causes of climate change. t but of coursre's another reasono do this. >> food insecurity is an issue and it's a very pertinent issue

even in an area like cambridge. >> reporter: the meals are delivered to other schools like mass bay community college in wellesley, where over half the school's population experiences some form of food insecurity. >> so that could mean, you know people aren't getting enoughn' food, simply aable to afford food.>> eporter: maxwell morrongiello is on the student government's food insecurity committee and he also grabs a microwaveable meal for himself a couple times a month. >> and so just in terms of me being able to make ends meet, it's been helpful. you know, i haven't reallyng suffered from . there's people here who are hungry. and you know that they really don't have access to food at all. v ity important that they have access to that. >> reporter: students can swing by four days a week and pick up frozen meals free of charge, no questions asd. food for free, a food rescue group based in cambridge, launched this program.ct executive di sasha purpura hopes to make it a model other schools and companies will adopt.

>> so this is something that a university in western mass, in worcester, a corporation could do. it enables them not only to stop throwing out perfectly goods food, it lem engage their student population, their ieployee population in group volunteering activ giving back to their community. >> reporter: tufts university students also package meals and are among a dozen organizations in the boston area that donate their unserved food, including brigham and women's hospital. this allows food for free to churn out over 1,000 meals a week. they deliver these plated meals to bunker hi and northern essex community college, in addition to some elementary hools and food pantries. but there's more work to do. >> it's away tremendous amounts of food every day. d there are people next door, a block away that aren't getting enough food. >> reporter: a hunger gap that these folks are helping to close. for the pbs newshour, i'm cristina quinn. >> woodruf on the newshour online right now, scientists

used to believe it was primarily humans who could process numbers in a complex way. but a new study shows that honeybees can be trained to do math, adding to what we know about other species' potential to develop the skills. learn more on our web site, pbs.org/newshour and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you anonsee you >> major funding for the pbs h newsho been provided by: t t night and day. >> catch it on replay. >> burning some fat. >> sharing the latest viral cat! >> you can do the thdogs you like tith a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at nsumercellular.tv

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. pd by contributions to yo station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newsur productions, llc captioned by media access gup at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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