Doctor PAUL RUTH is the creator of the tranquilizer EPHEMEROL, as well as the founder of BIOCARBON AMALGAMATE and the head of CONSEC SECURITY's Scanner division. Ruth is a psychopharmacist who has spent the past roughly four decades studying the SCANNER phenomena after discovering that his drug Ephemerol, a tranquilizer given to pregnant women, had extra side effects on the developing fetuses; when administered to pregnant women, the drug transferred to the child, resulting in the child manifesting telekinetic and telepathic abilities. The heigher the dose, the more powerful the Scanner.
Ruth confirmed this theory when he tested the drug on his own wife, prescribing and administering her the highest dose of Ephemerol. The twins born of his wife — DARRYL REVOK and CAMERON VALE — were the two most powerful Scanners in existence. However, their power proved to be too dangerous, and both children were separated and abandoned.
Ruth's ultimate goal is to study and explain the Scanner phenomena and prove that Scanners can be both safe and useful in/for society. Ruth, however, does not view Scanners as people, much less as humans. His own children are estranged to him, and he does not reunite with Vale until he is thirty-five, 'converting' Vale and pushing him to stop Revok. Ruth attempts to convince ConSec security to utilize Scanners, attempting to prove, through research and public demonstrations, that Scanners are not evil. His plans are thwarted, however, when Darryl Revok publicly assassinates a ConSec Scanner at a ConSec demonstration, leading ConSec officials to rethink their decision to support and back Ruth's Scanner program.
Ruth appears to know all about Revok's Underground, however he makes no attempt to stop him until the ConSec assassination. He however has no idea that Revok has taken his own company, Biocarbon Amalgamate, out from beneath him, as he assumes he is still the acting owner and knows nothing of Revok's plans to mass-produce Ephemerol.