Evolution is the supreme yet sublime allegro that gives birth to the extraordinary symphony of life, says Richard Dawkins, who recently visited Australia, appearing on Q&A with Cardinal George Pell and presenting at the Opera House. COSMOS's Heather Catchpole caught up with Dawkins to discuss evolution, the origin of life and his plans for his next book. Heather Catchpole: We very much enjoyed both of your performances in the last couple of days... Richard Dawkins: Good. HC: I wanted to start with The Magic of Reality because it's so very fresh in my mind. My daughter got a copy for Christmas from my scientific atheist father, who was very excited that I was talking to you today. What excited me most about the book was that you gave us, as parents, the resources to answer the questions which children ask -- and yet it's a very successful book for adults as well. How did you choose those questions? RD: Well, they were a list of questions out of a larger possible list, and I didn't try to cover all possible questions - I tried to cover questions that I thought might excite the curiosity of both the child and, as you say, an adult. I didn't attempt the very esoteric questions that are tackled by cutting edge modern physicists like quantum theory and relativity, I confined myself to questions about more everyday phenomena - like rainbows, earthquakes, night and day, winter and summer -- because those are the familiar things