Board Thread:Episodic and Issue Discussion/@comment-47881-20121008012726/@comment-1038387-20121011140821

The scientist is Ray Palmer, the Atom, who uses a lens crafted from a white dwarf star to shrink. It's not the source of Mal's powers in any continuity I know of.

Mal became Vox after the Gabriel's Horn and Red Tornado went explodey in his face. He never had "powers", in all his superhero identities, he relied on equipment.