A few years ago, Bill Nye was using science to promote a new product:

You paid about $200 for the ionator which turned tap water into “ionized” water that was then supposed to be able to clean about anything while killing just about any bacteria.

Here’s Bill Nye’s 9 minute infomercial. Note how sciencey it all is:

The YouTube page claimed, “Bill Nye the Science Guy explains the technology behind the Activeion ionator™ – which cleans & kills 99.9% of harmful bacteria using only tap water!”

Of course, real scientists quickly exposed it as a scam. For example:

Ionized water produced by the Activeion Ionator system does not kill tough, aquatic bacteria that may contaminate the system. The use of this system may increase the risk of spreading resistant, potential harmful bacteria to the surfaces and into the air.

Activeion Cleaning Solutions went out of business.

As Dr. Stephen Lower, a chemist from Simon Fraser University, noted:

Here, in a nutshell, are a few basic facts that I believe anyone with a solid background in chemistry or physiology would concur with:

“Ionized water” is nothing more than sales fiction; the term is meaningless to chemists.

So Bill Nye the Science Guy was using science to sell snake oil.