ALT EDITORS' SUGGESTION Decoupling of static and dynamic charge correlations revealed by uniaxial strain in a cuprate superconductor 28 July, 2025 The anomalous softening of the high-energy phonon modes in cuprate superconductors has remained puzzling for two decades. The authors address the problem here by using uniaxial strain with high-resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering on La1.875Sr0.125CuO4. Detwinning stripe order, they demonstrate that the phonon anomalies and the fluctuations of charge order retain an in-plane four-fold symmetry, suggesting a causal relationship between the two. The decoupling of the finite-energy fluctuations from the strength of the static order suggests closeness to a quantum critical point. L. Martinelli et al. Phys. Rev. B 112, L041124 (2025)