[4] Along with his former colleague Peter K. Hepler, Wayne established the role of calcium in regulating plant growth.

[7][13] Wayne authored two textbooks, including Plant Cell Biology: From Astronomy to Zoology[14][15] and Light and Video Microscopy.

[16] Attempting to explain photosynthesis and gravitropism, Wayne has developed and promoted a fringe theory of light and gravity based on a concept of "binary photons".

While in Japan, Wayne worked at the National Institute of Basic Biology in Okazaki with Akeo Kadota, Masakatsu Watanabe, and Masaki Furuya, Hitotsubashi University in Kunitachi with Eiji Kamitsubo, and the Himeji Institute of Technology with Tetsuro Mimura and Teruo Shimmen.

When it was generally assumed that fern spores contained all the ions necessary for germination,[27] Wayne, working with Peter K. Hepler, showed that external calcium ions were necessary for the red light-stimulated, phytochrome-mediated signal transduction chain that leads to the germination response of the spores of Onoclea sensibilis.