  We study low-dimensional problems in topology and geometry via a study of
contact and Cauchy-Riemann ($CR$) structures. A contact structure is called
spherical if it admits a compatible spherical $CR$ structure. We will talk
about spherical contact structures and our analytic tool, an evolution equation
of $CR$ structures. We argue that solving such an equation for the standard
contact 3-sphere is related to the Smale conjecture in 3-topology. Furthermore,
we propose a contact analogue of Ray-Singer's analytic torsion. This ''contact
torsion'' is expected to be able to distinguish among ''spherical space forms''
$\{\Gamma\backslash S^{3}\}$ as contact manifolds. We also propose the study of
a certain kind of monopole equation associated with a contact structure. In
view of the recently developed theory of contact homology algebras, we will
discuss its overall impact on our study.
