Permanent electric dipole moments in molecules require a breaking of parity symmetry. Conventionally, this symmetry breaking relies on the presence of heteronuclear constituents. I will discuss the observation of a permanent electric dipole moment in a homonuclear molecule in which the binding is based on asymmetric electronic excitation between the atoms. These exotic molecules consist of a ground-state rubidium (Rb) atom bound inside a second Rb atom electronically excited to a high-lying Rydberg state. The breaking of the parity symmetry during the formation of the Rydberg molecule is discussed. In the end I will briefly discuss our recent work on the probing of long-range interactions between Rydberg dressed groundstate atoms in an optical lattice.