Physics At low temperatures, ions in some one-dimensional (1D) crystal lattices are predicted to transition into a chain of dimers. The resulting charge order has been observed in quasi-1D solids consisting of ionic chains with weak interchain interactions. Aiming to find out whether this transition occurs in purely 1D systems, Yang et al. synthesized nanowires of Mo6Se6 from monolayers of the transition metal dichalcogenide MoSe2. This resulted in two types of nanowires: those attached along the edges of MoSe2 and those connecting adjacent MoSe2 flakes. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy revealed coherent charge order in the former, but not the latter, type. The loss of coherence might be caused by the formation of polaronic quasiparticles in the 1D system. Phys. Rev. X 10 , 031061 (2020).