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Those reactions involving hydrogen atom transfer arguably represent the most important subclass of the vast body of reactions. Free-radical abstractions of hydrogen atoms in saturated hydrocarbons, for example, are reactions of great importance in combustion, and the differing propensities for reaction of primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrogen atoms, as well as the different dynamics underlying these pathways, are central to a detailed understanding of combustion chemistry. The researchers at the ALS have measured global scattering distributions for reaction of chlorine atoms with saturated hydrocarbons. The use of tunable undulator radiation provides the unprecedented ability to probe the reactive hydrocarbon radical fragment directly in these reactions. For the backscattered products, however, virtually all of the energy of the collision is deposited into the 2-pentyl radicals, producing extremely hot, reactive products.