are we sure that he has a natural ability or did his ability come from the formula

Perhaps that's something we'll find out in two weeks.

I'm still not ruling out the ring... they've stressed it with the camera enough to either make it important or a red herring.

In the likely even that it is, however, I'd say he's the first synthetic.

I feel pretty confident that he gave himself the abilities.

As for the ring, I sort of took it to be like HRG's HRGs. Just something a character, who starts out cloaked in mystery, wears to be distinguished.

But you could be onto something.

That makes plenty of sense about the ring.

I think it fits in best with his anger at nathan not having a power at birth though to have him be the first person powered by formula. Like he strives to be part of the next step of human evolution, and he wants all of his offspring to be a part of it too.

My guess is that Arthur is synthetic, which made Nathan a prime candidate for injection.

Here's a funny theory about the rings... Red Kryptonite! It would be amusing if they tie some sort of meteoric rock into all this.